Crane, Stephen | First edition of Crane's most important work

Crane, Stephen

The Red Badge of Courage. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1895

8vo (184 x 120 mm). Title-page in red and black, text on laid paper, first issue publisher's advertisements at end unopened; one leaf of advertisements with closed marginal tear not affecting text, pages lightly toned, one or two stray spots. Publisher's oatmeal buckram, lettered and ornamented in red, black, and gold, top edge stained yellow, brown endpapers; slightly bumped at tail of spine, mild spotting to the top edge. Housed in a red clamshell box.

First edition, first issue of Crane's most important work. "An extraordinary study of the common man amid the turmoil, clamor and distortion typified by war ... its intensity, its startling yet inevitable descriptive phrase, struck a new note in American prose" (DAB).

REFERENCE:

BAL 4071; Grolier, American 98