Many of Stephen Crane's passions in life strongly influenced his writing of The Red Badge of Courage, primarily his obsession with war. The Red Badge of Courage was Crane's first book on war and is arguably his most successful book. His book consisted of so many different writing styles that researchers didn't know how to classify it. These writing styles include realism, naturalism, symbolism, and impressionism. In fact, many Civil War veterans, although Crane, had fought in the Civil War himself. However, Crane was not born until a few years after the war ended. This speaks to the prestige of the realism of Crane's book. Before Crane made his debut as a writer, he was born in Newark, New Jersey, on November 1, 1871, to Mary Helen Crane and the Reverend Doctor Jonathan Townley Crane. Before Crane published his first novel Maggie: A Girl of The Streets in 1893, he failed out of Lafayette College and Syracuse University. Although he had dropped out of school at the time of his death in 1900, when he was twenty-eight, he wrote six novels, a hundred short stories, two collections of poems, and a voluminous correspondence of journalism and writing. war (GCE). Not only did Crane's writings focus on war, but his life revolved around his fascination with war. On several occasions, Crane traveled to various countries to witness the Spanish-American War, the Greek-Turkish conflict, and an insurrection in Cuba. After her, during numerous travels, he wrote about the war with a vivid realism, such as that found in The Red Badge of Courage. Similarly to Crane, writers of the 1890s also wrote with realism and among these writers, Crane was one of the most influential (EWB). Through these writing methods, Crane examines the main character's reaction in an extreme situation...... middle of paper ...... Encyclopedia of American Literature. Flight. 1. Detroit: Gale, 2009. 348-352. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Internet. March 5, 2014. Crane, Stephen. The red badge of courage. New York: Penguin, 2005. Print. Toler, Pamela. “The red badge of courage.” War literature. Ed. Thomas Riggs. Flight. 2: Experiments. Detroit: St. James Press, 2012. 80-82. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Internet. March 5, 2014. “The Red Badge of Courage.” » Literary themes for students: War and Peace. Ed. Anne-Marie Hacht. Flight. 2. Detroit: Gale, 2006. 439-450. Literary themes for students. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Internet. March 5, 2014. “The Red Badge of Courage.” » Novels for students. Ed. Marie-Rose Napierkowski. Flight. 4. Detroit: Gale, 1998. 253-275. Gale Power Research. Internet. March 5, 2014. “Stephen Crane.” Encyclopedia of World Biography. Detroit: Gale, 1998. Gale biography in context. Internet. March 5. 2014.