The Red Badge of Courage by Crane, Stephen - 1895

New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1895. First edition. Fine. A Fine copy of the book with the spine very slightly toned and a pea-sized rub mark on the coated front end-paper where it looks like an early price was erased. Despite these two very minor flaws, this is a bright, sharp, unread copy of the book and about as fine as one could hope to find it in the absence of the very scarce dust jacket. First printing with yellow top-stain, undamaged type on p. 225 and no mention of this title in four pages of ads at the rear. BAL 4071. The author's realistic portrayal of a young soldier's shame after fleeing a civil war battle. It was selected as one of Merle Johnson's "High Spots of American Literature." The author's second book after "Maggie" and easily his best work. Included in "Men at War: The Best War Stories of All Time" by Ernest Hemingway, who wrote that this novel "is one of the finest books of our literature, and I include it entire because it is all as much of a piece as a great poem is." Housed in a custom cloth clamshell. Fine.