SOURCE: Nagel, James. “Impressionism in ‘The Open Boat’ and ‘A Man and Some Others’.” Research Studies 43, no. 1 (March 1975): 27-37.

In the following essay, Nagel elucidates impressionistic elements in “The Open Boat” and “A Man and Some Others.”

Late in 1897, only two months after their first meeting, Joseph Conrad wrote a brief letter to Stephen Crane praising his short stories “A Man and Some Others” and “The Open Boat,” both of which had appeared earlier that year.¹ After expressing his excitement, “I want to swear at you, to bless you—perhaps to shoot you—but I prefer to be your friend,” he went on to say:

You are an everlasting surprise to one. You shock—and the next moment you give the perfect artistic satisfaction. Your method is fascinating. You are a complete impressionist. The illusions of life come out of your hand without a flaw. It is not...