Beschreibung:

CRANE, STEPHEN. Autograph letter signed ("Stephen Crane") to his artist friend James H. Mosher ("My dear Jimmie") in New York; written from Galveston, Texas, 6 March 1895. 2 1/2 pages, 8vo, written on rectos of three sheets of imprinted stationery of The Tremont hotel, some minor fold tears. "I AM A LIQUOR HOLDER FROM HOLDERSVILLE" Written a day after Crane's arrival in Galveston and just after his completion of The Red Badge of Courage. After negotiations for the publication of The Black Riders , Crane took off (as a news syndicate feature writer) on a trip out West to Nebraska, then down to New Orleans and Galveston on his way to Mexico via San Antonio. He was in New Orleans on 20 February when he received the manuscript of The Red Badge of Courage for corrections. Apparently these were done in New Orleans, and he had just finished putting the finishing touches to his novel by the time he reached Galveston. Mosher was a good friend of Crane's to whom he warmly inscribed a copy of his first book, Maggie (now at NYPL). "Your friend and comrade of old Mr. Sam M. Penland is a peach. I blew into town yesterday morning at 9 and found the mayor at 10. In the afternoon we went driving and at night we went to the theatre. In the meantime we drank more cocktails than I ever saw in my whole life before. I was near dead from it...I fell then into the hands of the Galveston News and the managing editor said to me: 'Mr. Crane, I don't know your habits but as for me I always like to get up to concert pitch before I begin work.' So we drank him up to concert pitch..." Crane manages to keep another appointment with the mayor later in the day, who tells him: "'Well, let's go over to the club and get a drink.'" Crane continues: "My struggle through that day was a distinctly homeric one. To my honor be it said that I didn't mention the managing editor to the mayor nor the mayor to the managing editor, but withstood both assaults with good manners and tranquility. If any man hereafter says I can't hold liquor, he lies. I am a liquor holder from Holdersville. Galveston is a great town, I think..." With a typed letter signed from Sam Penland (the mayor with whom Crane tied one on) to Mosher, Galveston, 25 March 1895, 1 page, 4to , reporting on Crane's "agreeable" visit and remarking on the author's "quiet demeanor," "unobtrusive manner," and "impressive countenance." Not in Letters , ed. S. Wertheim & P. Sorrentino, and unpublished (no letters from Crane to Mosher are in their edition). Crane letters of this length and interest are rare.