Black Riders, the: and other lines

In 1894, when Stephen Crane was just twenty-two years old, he showed his friend, Hamlin Garland, a set of poems in manuscript. Garland showed them to John D. Barry, who arranged for a public reading of the new work. Crane could not summon up the courage to read the poems, or even attend the reading; he waited outside on the street while Barry read them.

The publishing firm of Copeland and Day took on the work, and Stephen Crane was a published poet. Six months later, The Red Badge of Courag...