Artistic and Literary Synergy: Illustrating Stephen Crane's "A Man and Some Others"

"A Man and Some Others" appeared in Century Magazine in February 1897. It was preceded by a full-page illustration by Frederic Remington, and bore the caption, "HELLO JOSÉ!" An examination of the story's publication reveals striking and unprecedented joint contributions from the story's creator, America's turn-of-the-last century's best-selling author, Stephen Crane; the Police Commissioner of New York (who was also a would-be literary critic, an author of forty-seven books and nearly three dozen articles, and an eventual president of the United States), Theodore Roosevelt; America's first literary agent, Paul Revere Reynolds; the editor of America's leading magazine, Richard Watson Gilder; and the foremost painter and illustrator of the American Old West, Frederic Remington. In what follows, I explore the impact that these "collaborators" had on the writing and editing of Crane's tale: Reynolds and Gilder might have been alert to the story's nascent racism, but their objections focused on other matters. Roosevelt wanted Crane to celebrate elitism and white privilege and he urged Crane to revise his story. Remington, eschewing the racial overtones in the story, confined himself to a faithful rendering of the story's opening scene. As a result, with Remington's non-committal illustration as a guide, initial readers were primed for a typical Western tale. However, given modern sensibilities, even with the prompting of Remington's impartial image, other readers may still take offense with what Crane has written.

I. Crane's Composition of "A Man and Some Others"

In May of 1893 Crane submitted the Red Badge of Courage manuscript to S. S. McClure, who held it for nearly six months without making a publication decision. Crane retrieved his manuscript in March and offered it to Irving Bacheller, who bought it for ninety dollars. Bacheller's newspaper syndicate released a shortened, serialized version of the novel, which appeared in several newspapers between 3 and 8 December 1894.

In late January 1895, Bacheller provided Crane with an expense account for an extensive tour of the West and Mexico. After he came back home to New York City, between mid-July and mid-September, some fourteen of his Mexican/Western travel dispatches and short stories were published. The more lasting and significant of these were four stories that drew upon his experiences in Mexico. His immersion into the sights and sounds of city life during his nearly eight weeks in Mexico supplied the atmosphere and texture for "The Wise Men" and "The Five White Mice." But also, during those two months Crane made several days-long forays into the deserts, mountains, and wilderness surrounding Mexico City. Crane's memory of the empty and open landscape and the silent wilderness provided the ambience for "One Dash-Horses" and inspired a setting and furnished the tone for "A Man and Some Others."

Crane's letter of 18 September 1895 describes the first of his Mexican tales, "One Dash, Horses." Writing to his friend Willis Brooks Hawkins, he remarks, "I am engaged at last on my personal troubles in Mexico" (Correspondence 123). This story was syndicated by Bacheller, appearing 4 and 6 January 1896. (It also appeared in England in the New Review of February 1896, as "Horses.") Several months later, in mid-summer of 1896, he completed a draft of his best and best-known Mexican story, "A Man and Some Others." This was the version that Crane presented to Theodore Roosevelt on 12 August 1896.

II. A Draft of "A Man and Some Others" and Theodore Roosevelt

The Crane-Roosevelt connection was intense and brief before it crashed to an acerbic end.¹ In the summer of 1896 S. S. McClure arranged the meeting of Crane and Roosevelt, since he was considering having Crane write an article about the New York City police force. (From 1895 until 1897 Roosevelt was the President of the Board of Police Commissioners.) In a letter to Crane on 20 July Roosevelt agreed to be interviewed by Crane, adding, "Court opens at ten, but eleven o'clock would...