STEPHEN Crane died young. But the impress of his art on American literature is a permanent thing. In an age still dominated by conservative and sentimental traditions Crane's free imagination evoked tales of realism. One who had never been a soldier knew the truth of war—and wrote "The Red Badge of Courage," Though Crane's art and power were not understood by many of his contemporaries, he ultimately came into his own, and has found such eminent and sincere admirers as Joseph Conrad and Henry James. "The Open Boat" is probably the finest single bit of Crane's writing, although the other stories included in this volume—among which are "The Upturned Face," "The Reluctant Voyages" and "An Experiment in Misery"—attain an almost equal perfection. Many of them appear for the first time in book form, and most of them are unobtainable except in the Modern Library edition.