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Within the ephemera of the everyday--old photographs, circus posters, iron toys--lies a challenge to America's dominant cultural memory. What this memory has left behind, Bill Brown recovers in the "material unconscious" of Stephen Crane's work, the textual residues of daily sensations that add up to a new history of the American 1890s. As revealed in Crane's disavowing appropriation of an emerging mass culture--from football games and freak shows to roller coasters and early cinema--the decade reappears as an underexposed moment in the genealogy of modernism and modernity.

Brown's story begins on the Jersey Shore, in Asbury Park, where Crane became a writer in the shadow of his father, a grimly serious Methodist minister who vilified the popular amusements his son adored. The coastal resorts became the stage for debates about technology, about the body's visibility, about a black service class and the new mass access to leisure. From this snapshot of a recreational scene that would continue to inspire Crane's sensational modernism, Brown takes us to New York's Bowery. There, in the visual culture established by dime museums, minstrel shows, and the Kodak craze, he exhibits Crane dramatically obscuring the typology of race.

Along the way, Brown demonstrates how attitudes toward play transformed the image of war, the idea of childhood and nationhood, and the concept of culture itself. And by developing a new conceptual apparatus (with such notions as "recreational time," "abstract leisure," and the "amusement/knowledge system"), he provides the groundwork for a new politics of pleasure. A crucial theorization of how cultural studies can and should proceed, The Material Unconscious insists that in the very conjuncture of canonical literature and mass culture, we can best understand how proliferating and competing economies of play disrupt the so-called "logic" and "work" of culture.

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Here are eight stories from master American writers of the 19th century. They vary from sinister tales by Ambrose Bierce - why is that window boarded up? - and a reflective moment in the life of a woman without children, to classic short stories by O' Henry and Stephen Crane. There is even an elegiac description of an eclipse by James Fenimore Cooper, author of "The Last of the Mohicans". Read with sensitivity and skill by Garrick Hagon and Liza Ross. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A cheap read, but little else.
First off, here are the short stories included on the 2 discs:

A Horseman in the Sky - Ambrose Bierce
Regret - Kate Chopin
Eclipse - James Fenimore Cooper
The Bride Comes To Yellow Sky - Stephen Crane
The Cop and the Anthem - O. Henry
The Princess and the Puma - O. Henry
The Whirligig of Life - O. Henry

Read by Garrick Hagon and Liza Ross

Based on the name recognition of the authors, I was expecting much more.None of the stories were known to me (and probably not to anyone outside an english lit department).Two of the stories were decent, but the rest were unimpressive.Wasn't impressed with the readers either, as they tended towards over-acting (though perhaps the material lent itself to that).

The two-disc set served its purpose of keeping me awake on a long drive to a fishing cabin, but little else.I did like the fact that I could stop between short stories, unlike a longer novel.On my last long trip, I was listening to Shadow Divers (great book!) and arrived at my destination in the middle of a dive emergency. Had to wait three days to learn the fate of the divers.

Can't say I would really recommend this compilation, but if you're a voracious reader/listener who goes through books like candy, the price is hard to beat.Also might be more enjoyable to someone else for the nostalgic qualities.
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Get your "A" in gear!

They're today's most popular study guides-with everything you need to succeed in school. Written by Harvard students for students, since its inception SparkNotes™ has developed a loyal community of dedicated users and become a major education brand. Consumer demand has been so strong that the guides have expanded to over 150 titles.SparkNotes'™ motto is Smarter, Better, Faster because:

· They feature the most current ideas and themes, written by experts.
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· The clear writing style and edited content enables students to read through the material quickly, saving valuable time.

And with everything covered--context; plot overview; character lists; themes, motifs, and symbols; summary and analysis, key facts; study questions and essay topics; and reviews and resources--you don't have to go anywhere else!



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The publication of The Red Badge of Courage in 1895 brought Stephen Crane instant fame at age 23. At 28, he was dead. In the brief span of his literary career, Crane enjoyed a significant measure of renown as well as notoriety, but his reputation rested almost entirely upon his war novel, and he felt that his talent had ultimately been misjudged. To this day, most educated American readers know him only as the author of the most realistic Civil War novel ever written, three or four action-packed short stories, and a handful of iconoclastic free-verse poems. This reference book provides a more complete picture of Crane's short but furiously creative life and encourages a more extensive appreciation of his works. Entries are provided for works, characters, persons, and other topics related to his life and writing, and many entries list sources of additional information. The volume also includes a chronology and a bibliography of the most important studies about Crane. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

An outstanding source
The book is constantly useful and I think exactly what Crane scholars need. It is a balanced and inclusive source that admits much about Crane is shadowy and doesn't have an agenda for any one particular 'take' on the man.

A wonderful reference source for Crane
Some of the reviews on this site are really loony! They seem to be written by one person, over and over again. A Stephen Crane Encyclopedia is the most accurate, clearly written, and informative reference guides on Crane one could buy. It is also probably the very best of the encyclopedias of American authors.

Makes Stephen Crane Boring!
This is a WAY over-priced book that makes Crane a really boring person, which I doubt he was. If you really need to read this book do NOT buy it. Get it from the library and drink coffee. I found numerous errors in this book because the author disregards all the other biographies about Crane and makes up his own material.

Excellent resource.
This is an excellent resource--concise, informative, and authoritative.Those who complain about its lack of originality have totally missed the point: it's an encyclopedia, and it is supposed to bring together the interpretations of many critics and to supply information about Crane's works and his life so that the reader can then go and do further research.

Loony Reviews
Many of the reviews of A Stephen Crane Encyclopedia on this site seem to be personal attacks, as the author suggests. One review claims that the author's opinions are in "left field," and another insists that, on the contrary, he simply summarizes the work of others. Wertheim is a leading Stephen Crane scholar, and to a great extent his opinions ARE the field. On the other hand, author encyclopedias do attempt to synthesize prevailing critical stances, and this encyclopedia does this admirably. it is succinct, well-written, and authoritative. A must for serious students of Stephen Crane. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Anticipating the modern world
While Stephen Crane is justly famous for "The Red Badge of Courage," he deserves to be just as famous for his poetry, gathered here in one short volume. It's gnomic, stark, and cynical as only deeply wounded idealism can be, casting a jaundiced yet compassionate eye on humanity, which he sees as stripped of its comforting illusions by the modern age, and thus utterly alone & terrified:

A man said to the universe:
"Sir, I exist!"
"However," replied the universe,
"The fact has not created in me
A sense of obligation."

And so we run & hide from the harsh truth:

I was in the darkness;
I could not see my words
Nor the wishes of my heart.
Then suddenly there was a great light --

"Let me into the darkness again."

Yet Crane sees that the only response to the truth is to face it, however painful that may be, however he might be despised for doing so:

"Think as I think," said a man,
"Or you are abominably wicked;
You are a toad."

And after I had thought of it,
I said, "I will, then, be a toad."

If this isn't contemporary, then what is? In fact, as we slide into an age of irrationality, of fundamentalism, of happy thoughts & media-massaged minds, Crane's honesty is all the more affecting & needed. For those who seek a poet with something vital & relevant to say, you've definitely found him. Most highly recommended!


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Collected poems and stories ... Read more

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Winner of the 54th Annual Frank Luther Mott-Kappa Tau Alpha Research AwardThis is the first critical study of Stephen Crane´s nonfiction work -his urban reportage, travel writing, and war correspondence. Going beyond biography and literary criticism to trace a literary revolution that is a resonating strain in the genealogy of modern American literature, Robertson reveals the broad climate of change that had begun to blur the line between nonfiction writing and fiction in Crane´s era. He also explores the life of two writers directly influenced by Crane: Ernest Hemingway and Theodore Dreiser. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Must read for anybody interested in history of journalism
Robertson is a really excellent writer, and his frame for discussion is compelling reading. As the issues that face the media today continue to be complicated ones, this book provided me with a valuable look at the intersection between journalism and fiction in the late 19th century. I found the "fact/fiction discourse" that Robertson discusses to be a robust concept and still relevant. ... Read more

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In this book, Gandal reveals how the slum, in the last decade of the nineteenth century, became a source of spectacle as never before (in newspapers, documentary accounts, photographs, and literature), and emerged as a subject for aesthetic, ethnographic, and psychological description. He argues that the development of these new concepts and styles for representing the urban and largely immigrant poor amounted to a revolution in ethics. Gandal provides a unique reading of Jacob Riis' How the Other Half Lives (1890), the first book in America on the slum to include photographs, and one of the first books to present ethnographic and psychological details that challenge traditional moralist accounts. In addition, Gandal examines Crane's Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1893), which pushed both ethnographic and psychological analysis even further by including profane local vernacular, demonstrating not only different customs, but radically different ethics in the Bowery, and indicating a human interiority that had nothing at all to do with character. ... Read more

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The Red Badge of Courage And Selected Prose and Poetry ... Read more

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A Treasury of Civil War Stories (R) ... Read more