Pages of War: 'The Open Boat' and Stephen Crane's real life shipwreck | SOFREP

Thanks LTC Ivan Raiklin, Esq. for sharing
Pages of War: ‘The Open Boat’ and Stephen Crane’s real life shipwreck SOFREP Original Content
By Luke Ryan| 11.26.2017
"If you’ve read the previous installments of this series, you’re probably thinking that “The Open Boat” by Stephen Crane has no place here. It might be a stretch, seeing as there’s no outright war in this short novella, I’ll give you that. However, there are two reasons why I’m including it: Crane’s intimate connection to a life threatening situation and how he put it on paper, and because it’s one of my favorite pieces of writing of all time.

You may know Stephen Crane from his more famous novel (and one I should also probably write about), “The Red Badge of Courage,” but “The Open Boat” speaks to me on another level because of that intimate connection I mentioned. As a former foot soldier who’s gotten my hands dirty on occasion, it always irks me to hear stories written by people who clearly don’t know what they’re talking about; conversely, it always excites me when experts talk about what they know best."