SOURCE: Gullason, Thomas A. “Modern Pictures of War in Stephen Crane's Short Stories.” War, Literature and The Arts (1999): 183-96.

In the following essay, Gullason explores four short stories that he claims provide “pictures of war” that deserve a place next to Crane's more well-known “civilian” stories.

Of his twenty-two short stories dealing with the subject, Stephen Crane composed four “pictures of war” that were and still remain innovative, provocative, and modern, namely “A Mystery of Heroism,” “An Episode of War,” “Death and the Child,” and “The Upturned Face.”¹ Collectively, they made a significant contribution to Crane's periodic literary battles against the traditional and stereotyped fiction of his day, and are deserving of a place in the company of his great “civilian” stories, “The Open Boat,” “The Blue Hotel,” “The Bride Comes to Yellow Sky,” and “The Monster.”

The four pictures mirror the Civil War, the Greco-Turkish War, and...