When young Stephen Crane went to family reunions, he was surrounded by Methodist preachers. At one such event in 1874, 14 of them attended, including his father and maternal grandfather and a great uncle who was a bishop.
Crane (1871-1900) would go the other way, smoking, drinking and keeping the company of prostitutes, while creating a groundbreaking body of literature, notably “The Red Badge of Courage” — before dying at age 28 of tuberculosis.
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