November 1–All Saint’s Day–is also the birthday of Stephen Crane.
Some Background
Born in 1871, he had a short life, dying from tuberculosis at the age of 28 in 1900. But in his brief lifespan, he wrote at least two seminal novels that pushed American literature toward realism with flying colors. He also wrote short stories and published a collection of poetry. A brilliant, prolific writer we still read today.
His Color Palette
His most famous is THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE. In it, we are immersed in a color-laden world. The first paragraph alone includes brown, green, amber, blackness, and red. My overall memory, having read this novel many decades ago, however, is of yellow. Despite the title, I came away with a lasting impression of just that color. It may be time to read this book again, because now we can do a word search–and yellow/amber/gold appear just 27 times, but red is used 412 times and crimson 9 –421 references to the color in the title. There are 54 mentions of blue (clad soldiers) and 22 gray. Black appears 29 times, with white at 14, brown at 12, and tawny at 1. There may other color references. There are 40 mentions of “dark” and 53 of light or sunlight. Stephen Crane immersed the reader in a vibrant rainbow world. A classic, and a beacon for novelists to study.
Read and Celebrate
You can find the novel for free at Project Gutenberg, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/73/73-h/73-h.htm .
Stephen Crane was a saint of color! Celebrate him and his birthday today, as you may also pray for all saints.