Signed Cabinet Card Photograph.
Port Jervis, N.Y.: Lundelux Studio, (ca. 1891). Albumen print on original studio card mount (160 x 105 mm). Bust portrait of a young Crane in winged collar, jacket and tie. Condition: print slightly scuffed, light rust from old staple just touching signature; corners just slightly bumped. insscribed by crane on the verso to close friend and famed literary agent Curtis Brown : " To Mr. Curtis Brown/ with the regards of Stephen Crane/ Hartwood, N.Y., January 27, '96". Crane scholar StanleyWertheim dates this portrait to the period of Crane's leaving Syracuse University in favor of his journalististic explorations of New York City's infamous Bowery slums. His experiences with American's urban poverty provided the realism that anchored his novel, "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets." Crane was origininally forced to publish Maggie at his own expense and was thoroughly disheartened by the complete lack of critical response. The subject matter was deemed too unseemly to even discuss in print. However, Crane's spirtis were lifted immensely when he heard through New York Press editor Curtis Brown (who first published an abridged version of "The Red Badge of Courage" in that paper) that William Dean Howells would review it. Brown remembers: “If Crane had been told that Howells had condemned the book he might have heaved a sigh. But instead, given the welcome news, he seemed dazed. He looked around like a man who did not know where he was. He gulped something down his throat, grinned like a woman in hysterics and then went off to take up his vocation again” (Stallman, Stephen Crane: A Critical Biography. Iowa City, 1972. p. 71). Curtis Brown remained a close friend of Crane's and played a prominent role in presenting Crane's work, even helping secure the English publication of some titles. Crane is known to have inscribed books for Brown, but the present portrait's inscription is particularly evocative given its date of a few months prior to the first commercial publication of Maggie and the first English edition of "The Red Badge of Courage." Crane insribed photographs are of the utmost rarity. The 1995 Grolier Club exhibition catalogue of the Stanley Wertheim Crane collection included "the only known inscribed photograph of Crane in a private collection," and his edition of the Crane Correspondence locates four other inscribed photographs (all in institutional collections).
Signed Cabinet Card Photograph.
Port Jervis, N.Y.: Lundelux Studio, (ca. 1891). Albumen print on original studio card mount (160 x 105 mm). Bust portrait of a young Crane in winged collar, jacket and tie. Condition: print slightly scuffed, light rust from old staple just touching signature; corners just slightly bumped. insscribed by crane on the verso to close friend and famed literary agent Curtis Brown : " To Mr. Curtis Brown/ with the regards of Stephen Crane/ Hartwood, N.Y., January 27, '96". Crane scholar StanleyWertheim dates this portrait to the period of Crane's leaving Syracuse University in favor of his journalististic explorations of New York City's infamous Bowery slums. His experiences with American's urban poverty provided the realism that anchored his novel, "Maggie: A Girl of the Streets." Crane was origininally forced to publish Maggie at his own expense and was thoroughly disheartened by the complete lack of critical response. The subject matter was deemed too unseemly to even discuss in print. However, Crane's spirtis were lifted immensely when he heard through New York Press editor Curtis Brown (who first published an abridged version of "The Red Badge of Courage" in that paper) that William Dean Howells would review it. Brown remembers: “If Crane had been told that Howells had condemned the book he might have heaved a sigh. But instead, given the welcome news, he seemed dazed. He looked around like a man who did not know where he was. He gulped something down his throat, grinned like a woman in hysterics and then went off to take up his vocation again” (Stallman, Stephen Crane: A Critical Biography. Iowa City, 1972. p. 71). Curtis Brown remained a close friend of Crane's and played a prominent role in presenting Crane's work, even helping secure the English publication of some titles. Crane is known to have inscribed books for Brown, but the present portrait's inscription is particularly evocative given its date of a few months prior to the first commercial publication of Maggie and the first English edition of "The Red Badge of Courage." Crane insribed photographs are of the utmost rarity. The 1995 Grolier Club exhibition catalogue of the Stanley Wertheim Crane collection included "the only known inscribed photograph of Crane in a private collection," and his edition of the Crane Correspondence locates four other inscribed photographs (all in institutional collections).
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
