An V^vwritten Life of Stephen Crane                 15

George Eliot, and a piece of doggerel by one Philander Johnson.
"I have an incessant longing for love and sympathy," she confided
to her notebook; whatever may have been the shortcomings of her
virtue in later years, these were the two qualities she gave in fullest
measure to Stephen Crane and shared with him while he lived.

The mail that came to Brede Place was full of surprises. In 1899
Mrs. Crane had solicited her friends for a fund to provide for the
children of Harold Frederic, the novelist. That August Bernard
Shaw replied, "We have three very expensive orphans on hand
already—parents alive in every case. My impulse is to repudiate all
extra orphans with loud execrations ... I should simply take
them out into the garden and bury them." But he enclosed ^5
nonetheless, and added, typically, "I am greatly shocked to find
that your letter is dated the 17th June; but when you know me
better you will be surprised at the promptness of my reply."

And here is Henry James thanking Cora Crane for sending him
some snapshots taken on his last visit (the photographs are in the
collection): "All thanks for the strange images—which I never
expected to behold. They form a precious memento of a romantic

hour___I look as if I had swallowed a wasp, or a penny toy. And

I tried to look so beautiful. I tried too hard, doubtless. But don't
show it to any one as H. J. trying. .."

Among the rarest and most interesting curiosities in the Co¬
lumbia Crane collection is the only known copy of several pages
of the script of a play entitled The Ghost. The writing is not
distinguished, but what is remarkable is its authorship. The Ghost
was the joint product of Messrs. Henry James, George Gissing,
Joseph Conrad, Rider Haggard, H. G. Wells, two or three others,
and Stephen Crane. The collection includes a printed program
signed by all the authors except Gissing and Haggard.' Another
curiosity is the file of correspondence regarding a dinner honoring

' While this article was in press, an interesting account of the circumstances
under which Tloe Ghost was produced appeared. In "Tl:ie Ghost at Brede Place,"
Bulletin of the New York Public Library, December 1952, John D. Gordan
writes, "Perhaps some day a manuscript of The Ghost will turn up among the
papers of one of the collaborators .... any curiosity that involved such an array
of talent is a ghost that can never quite be laid."