TEPHEN Grane and HIS METHODIST HERITAG

"A METHODIST CLERGYMAN--OF THE OLD AMBLING-NAG, SADDLE-BAG, EXHORTING IaND": _§TEPHEN gRANE AND HIS METHODIST HERITAGE By CLARENCE OLIVER :JOHNSON Bachelor of Arts Northwestern Oklahoma State University Alva, Oklahoma 1973 Master of Arts Oklahoma State University Stillwater, Oklahoma 1976 Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate College of the Oklahoma State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY July, 1982 "A METHODIST CLERGYMAN--OF THE OLD AMBLING-NAG, SADDLE-BAG, EXHORTING KIND" : STEPHEN CRANE AND HIS METHODIST HERITAGE Thesis Approved: ~L.·~ Dean of the Graduate College 1113'710 ii PREFACE This is the first detailed analysis of the important published works of George Peck, Jesse Peck, and Jonathan Townley Crane and the first ap plication of the fruits of such an analysis to the works of Stephen Crane in an attempt to unravel the problems of Crane's literary and cul tural antecedents. A study of this sort cannot be conducted without much assistance, and I had as much or more than most scholars deserve. Mr. Terry Basford. of the Oklahoma State University library was indefatigable in his search, through interlibrary loan, for the works of Drs. Peck and Crane. He labored above and beyond the requirements of duty. Heather Lloyd and Carol Ahmad of the OSU library staff were also invaluable in furthering my research. Dr. Theodore Agnew was an early source of inspiration when he encouraged my research during a history reading course I took with him. Dr. Clinton Keeler was always a source of encouragement and support and has been missed as this study was brought to a close. Dr. Mary Rohrberger is almost a co-author, but I would not besmirch her reputa tion by adding her name to the title page. Dr. David Shelley Berkeley, who taught me all I wanted to know of research methods and who questioned my choice of specialty with unflagging incredulity, encouraged, subsi dized, and reprimanded me with marvelous grace and will always hold me in his debt. My fellow students were an unwitting source of inspiration and my colleagues in the profession have served similarly. Dr. Margaret Nelson's kind gift of an out-of-print collection of studies was much iii appreciated. Dr. John Bruton, however, in two years of tolerating Stephen Crane et al., has been more than most. He has been a friend, a colleague, and an advisor-in-absentia. He deserves better than he gets. My study has been aided by persons known only through the imper sonal medium of the letter and a signature. Kenneth Lohf of the Butler Library at Columbia, and Carolyn A. Davis of the George Arents Research Library at Syracuse University, provided important manuscripts and type scripts; and Evelyn Sutton of the Methodist Archives, Louise K. Capron of Drew University, and David Estes of Emory University all answered questions very patiently. Dr. Fredson Bowers, Dr. Robert W. Stallman, and Dr. Kenneth Cameron similarly answered questions and wrote kind, encouraging letters. Dr. Emory Bucke of the United Methodist Publishing House kindly obtained a copy of What Must I Do to be Saved? for me after I had exhausted what seemed to be all possible sources. To list all the names of people who provided technical and textual assistance is impossible and beyond the ability of my memory. May they acquire the enduring fame of the unknown soldier. They are not forgot ten. This study has been supported amply and unstintingly by my grand father, Clarence D. Johnson, a veteran of sixty years in the wars of education. He did not collect interest or require identification. My mother provided the funds to purchase the Virginia edition of Cra...~e's works, without which the study would have been seriously impeded. My father did not live to see the completion of this work, but he would not have been impressed, nor would I have expected him to be. Dr. Robert Schlottman, his wife, Carol, and his family have provided me and my family with a convenient and much appreciated weekend pseudo•home from iv which I could complete the research for the paper. They are irreplace able friends and marvelous hostelers. The obligatory reference to wife, family, dog, et al., is more than an obligation for this study. My wife, Peggy, has endured silently, and not so silently, has eaten with, slept through, and lived beside Stephen Crane for nearly ten years, and has been the only important inspiration and motivation for the completion of the degree. She never went to the whip in the stretch. My children have almost grown up in the shadow of Stephen Crane, a fact that I re gret. John cut his first teeth on a Norton Critical Edition of The Red Badge of Courage and Fianna always pretended to understand when I wouldn't stop to play a game with her. Bess may be able to grow up with a participating father; I hope so. This study is a release, in many respects, and is not to be construed to be the property of the author. It is a poor substitute for the years I owe my family. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter Page I . INTRODUCTION 1 II. THE CRITICAL FALLACIES . 7 III. MORALS, IDEALS, AND PHILOSOPHIES . 48 IV. LITERARY INFLUENCE . 72 V. CULTURAL HERITAGE . • 124 VI. RELIGIOUS HERITAGE • • 147 A SELECTED BIJ3LIOGRAPHY ••.• 175 APPENDICES • • • • . • • 191 APPENDIX A - SYNOPSES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE WORKS OF GEORGE PECK, JESSE TRUESDELL PECK, AND JONATHAN TOWNLEY CRANE • . • . • . • • • . 192 APPENDIX B - A LIST OF HISTORICAL, PHILOSOPHICAL, MYTHOLOGICAL, FOLKLORE, LITERARY, ARTISTIC, AND POLITICAL WORKS AND FIGURES QUOTED OR ALLUDED TO IN THE· WORKS OF GEORGE PECK, JESSE TRUESDELL PECK, JONATHAN TOWNLEY CRANE, AND STEPHEN CRANE . • . • . • • • • . • . • • . 210 APPENDIX C - LIST OF BIBLICAL QUOTATIONS IN THE WORKS OF GEORGE PECK, JESSE TRUESDELL FECK, JONATHAN CRANE, AND STEPHEN CRANE • . • • . • • • • • • • . • . • • . • • • • 235 vi LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Jonathan Townley Crane AS The Annual Sermon, etc. MM Methodism and Its Methods ARTS Arts of Intoxication DUTY Christian Duty in Regard to American Slavery, etc. DANCING Essay on Dancing FB The Fruitful Bough HOLINESS Holiness, the Birthright of All God's Children POP A Popular Amusements RW The Right Way, etc. TM The True Man, etc. George Peck WAYA An Answer to the Question, Why Are You a Wesleyan Methodist? etc. RF An Appeal from Tradition to Scripture and Common Sense, etc. CE Christian Exertion, etc. EMB Early Methodism, etc. MC Formation of a Manly Character, etc. CC History of the Canada Case LJC The Life of Julius Caesar LAT The Life and Times of Rev. George Peck, D.D., etc. IAE Lives of the Apostles and Evangelists vii NER National Evils and Their Remedy ORATION Oration Delivered on the Fourth of July, 1838 OCTT Our Country: Its Trials and Its Triumphs, etc. PP The Past and The Present, etc. SDCP The Scripture Doctrine of Christian Perfection, etc. BUDGET Sketches and Incidents, etc. SE Slavery and the Episcopacy, etc. USC Universal Salvation Considered, etc. WYOMING Wyoming, etc. Jesse Truesdell Peck CIC The Central Idea of Christianity GIE God in Education, etc. GR The Great Republic, etc. SPC A Sermon onthe Person of Christ TW The True Woman, etc. WMID What Must I Do To Be Saved? viii CHAPI'ER I INTRODUCTION When Stephen Crane, in a letter to one of his editors who had re- quested biographical information, wrote, "upon my mother's side, every- body as soon as he could walk, became a Methodist clergym.an--of the old ambling-nag, saddle bag, exhorting kind. My uncle, Jesse T. Peck, D.D., 1.1.D., was bishop in the Methodist church. My father was also a cler gyman of that church, author of numerous works of theology, an editor of various periodicals of the church. He graduated at Princeton. He was a great, fine, simple mind." Crane was reciting family tradition--a tradi tion of which he was proud and which has become one of the principal wellsprings of Crane studies.1 In 1896, Clarence Loomis Peaslee and Dr. Charles Kelsey Gaines recognized. the family influence and its interest to Crane's work. Gaines paraphrased. Crane's deflation of the Methodist itinerants in the family and suggested that "possibly this heredity, al so, may be traced in his work. 112 Peaslee, a personal friend of Crane's, noted that "it is an interesting study in heredity to note the influence of these two professions in Mr. Crane's literary work."3 The "two pro fessions" are the soldiers and preachers of Crane's family. Even Crane's brother, William Howe Crane, felt compelled. to indulge "a little specu lation • • • as to how much Stephen owed to the Peck side of his make-up for his literary abilities" (Letters, p. 3), and Cora Crane, in her notes for an aborted. biography, reminded herself to examine Stephen's 1 2 "ecclesiastical connections," to "use the problem of heredity," and to investigate Stephen's "home life X religion £sii}. 114 From these early musings on Crane's literary debt to his family, there was no serious development, even in Thomas Beer's landmark biography, until Daniel Hoffman's study of Crane's poetry (John Berryman's thesis-ridden biography is suspect on this point).5 Sherwood Anderson, in his introduction to Follett's 1925 edition of Crane's works, had de manded that readers "get him £cran£ in relation to his time, the drama of the man, of his life," but he went completely unheeded. 6 Hoffman, the first to quote extensively from the writings of Crane's family, admitted that "what we have need of is a fuller understanding of Crane's sensibil- ity and of the literary and cultural traditions which lent their rather meager nutriment to its expression in his work." Hoffman had been "led from his IJirane'IiJ poems to consider his relations to his parents, to the diverse religious views of his family." "The Bible and certain of his relative's tractarian writings," Hoffman continues, "provide him ffiran£ with the chief stock of images in his verse."7 Despite his repetition of material originated by Beer and perpetuated by Berryman, Hoffman concludes that none of "Crane's critics or biographers has followed the hint" of a connection between Stephen Crane and his family and their writings (Hoff- man, p.

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