Misprints and errors have been corrected and are identified in "A Note on the Text." Footnotes indicate changes in wording Crane made for the 1896 edition and explain slang expressions and customs of the day. Maps of the novel's New York City locales are also provided "Backgrounds and Sources" includes nonfictional accounts of urban life by Jacob Riis and others from which Crane drew, as well as discussions of Crane's literary source "The Author and the Novel" traces the history of the novel's composition and revision Contemporary American reviews of the 1893Maggie and American and...

Little-known writings show how a rich family literory heritage influenced Stephen Crane's formative years, brief maturity, and artistry. Stephen Crane was a prodigious American author whose bohemian ways seemed to contradict his conscientious upbringing. Drawing on little-known and unpublished documents by Crane's father, mother, and sister, and preeminent scholar Thomas A. Gullason shows how their vitality and versatility galvanized Crane's imagination, spurred his literary career, and affected his lifestyle. The Cranes emerge as a spirited and serious lot who were passionately concerned...