Talk:Stephen Crane/GA1

GA Review

Great job on this article; it's great to see another 19th century American literary figure getting some attention. I made a few edits myself; feel free to disagree on my changes. I hope you don't mind if I further nit-pick a tad...

Under "Early years", the sentence about Crane's first surviving poem seems a bit awkward, particularly how it is about "wanting a dog". I wonder if I could suggest arranging as: In December 1879, Crane wrote a poem about wanting a dog for Christmas. The poem, entitled "I'd Rather Have -" is his first surviving poem. I might be overthinking this one so feel free to ignore. Later on in the same subsection, the phrase "Townley was a newspaperman" may be ambiguous to people: is he an editor? a newspaper owner? See if you can clarify.

Please, feel free to overthink! :) I quite like your suggestion about Crane's first poem, but I altered it slightly to reduce the redundancy of "the poem... the poem": "In December 1879, Crane wrote a poem about wanting a dog for Christmas. Entitled "I'd Rather Have -", it is his first surviving poem." Better? Townley was a jack of all trades in the newspaper world, so I've reworded it to: "Townley was a professional journalist; he headed the Long Branch department of both the New York Tribune and the Associated Press and also served as editor of the Asbury Park Shore Press."

In the "Post-education" subsection, who is Willis Fletcher Johnson? Would the word "editor" before his name help?

Added "editor and author". What a shame there's no article for him!

Under "Life in New York", it might be worth throwing in a footnote to support that Crane though The Red Badge of Courage would make him famous.

Eek, I can't find the ref at the moment. I've removed that bit of the sentence for now until I can verify it.

Under "Cora Crane..." subsection, why use "seven hundred dollars"? Elsewhere, I see $300 and other dollar amounts following the same format. Also, there's a term "as the water gained..." Is gained a typical expression? I'm oblivious to it. Further down in that section, "Crane emerged from the ordeal with his reputation enhanced, if not restored, after the battering he received from the press during the Dora Clark affair." I'd suggest a footnote (or even two) as the concept of his reputation being enhanced is a likely candidate to challenge.

Changed to $700 (probably just an oversight on my part). I believe "gained" was the word used in the source, but it does sound too poetic, I agree; changed to "as the ship took on more water". As for the footnote(s), I tried to explain it better in the prose with: "Portrayed favorably and heroically by the press, Crane emerged from the ordeal with his reputation enhanced, if not restored, after the battering he received during the Dora Clark affair" Does that help?

"English and Spanish-American War" has a great quote from his friendship with Conrad. Who should we assume made that quote?

Isn't it lovely? Crane said it, so now it reads: "Crane also met the Polish-born novelist Joseph Conrad in October 1897, with whom he would have what Crane called a 'warm and endless friendship'."

A couple notes overall relating to the MoS (which you might be able to confirm for me). I'm not sure if there is a specific policy advocating a single space after a full stop, but I've seen it more often on Wiki than the two spaces method used in this article. Also, I seem to remember a policy on dates saying that there should always be a comma after the year in full dates (i.e. On July 28, 2008, something happened). I wonder if the policy on autoformatting dates (i.e. July 28; some of the dates in the "Death" section follow this format) is the same as I remember it. Not sure if it's significant until the FAC stage, at which point I'm sure it would be descended upon by the hungry wolves who know better than I do. I'd also suggest being a bit more generous with internal links; I added a few myself.

Like serial commas, the single vs. double spacing after a full stop and commas after dates are both optional as per the MOS. I like french spacing and extra commas, but that's just me. :) As for autoformatting, this is something that's changed rather recently; it's actually discouraged now (don't ask why, I have no idea), so I'll probably end up deleting all linked full dates before I get slammed at FAC. Thanks for reminding me! I'll also go through and add internal links to all of those magazines and publishing houses...

Really, though, great job. I'm putting this on hold, presuming it will take no time at all for you to respond to my notes above. Overall, this is a well-written, well-sourced article – and I definitely learned a thing or two reading it. I'm sure you intend to prepare it for FA review soon! --Midnightdreary (talk) 22:26, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

Thanks so much, Midnightdreary! I truly appreciate your helpful copyediting and great suggestions. FAC is indeed my ultimate goal, so hopefully there will be one more 19th century American writer at WP:FA in the foreseeable future. :) María (habla conmigo) 23:38, 28 July 2008 (UTC)

These were easy fixes, as the article was quite solid. I believe that this article meets and exceeds the good article criteria. Congratulations, and thank you! --Midnightdreary (talk) 01:19, 29 July 2008 (UTC)