Burning Boy

The Life and Work of Stephen Crane

By: Paul Auster

Narrated by: Paul Auster

This program is read by the author.

Booker Prize-shortlisted and New York Times best-selling author Paul Auster's comprehensive, landmark biography of the great American writer Stephen Crane.

With Burning Boy, celebrated novelist Paul Auster tells the extraordinary story of Stephen Crane, best known as the author of The Red Badge of Courage, who transformed American literature through an avalanche of original short stories, novellas, poems, journalism, and war reportage before his life was cut short by tuberculosis at age 28.

Auster’s probing account of this singular life tracks Crane as he rebounds from one perilous situation to the next: A controversial article written at 20 disrupts the course of the 1892 presidential campaign, a public battle with the New York Police Department over the false arrest of a prostitute effectively exiles him from the city, a star-crossed love affair with an unhappily married uptown girl tortures him, a common-law marriage to the proprietress of Jacksonville’s most elegant bawdyhouse endures, a shipwreck results in his near-drowning, he withstands enemy fire to send dispatches from the Spanish-American War, and then he relocates to England, where Joseph Conrad becomes his closest friend and Henry James weeps over his tragic, early death.

In Burning Boy, Auster not only puts forth an immersive listen about an unforgettable life but also, casting a dazzled eye on Crane’s astonishing originality and productivity, provides uniquely knowing insight into Crane’s creative processes to produce the rarest of listening experiences - the dramatic biography of a brilliant writer as only another literary master could tell it.

A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company

©2021 Paul Auster (P)2021 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

2022, L.A. Times Book Prize - Winner

2022, L.A. Times Book Prize - Finalist

2021, Boston Globe Best Books of the Year

My New Go To - Paul Auster.

Needless to say I loved this Audible presentation. Auster was the key. It made a long book shorter because every chapter connected with me. So much American literature and fiction- especially in war related books and movies, etc - I now believe was an SC derivation! Hemingway admitted as much himself. Loved the Elbert Hubbard chapter, as I reside in East Aurora , NY. What a gas. I think I was destined to listen to every minute of this great bio on Americas greatest writer. Thank you Paul Auster. Looking forward to more!

Auster on Crane

If you have problems with either author… there’s medication for that. There’s a bucketload of reasons why Crane is the fountain of modern literature. He’s the American Mozart. And Auster is the perfect conduit for Crane’s story.

Absolutely fantastic.

Anyone interested in the art of biography and the art of literary criticism should read this book — even if you have read little or nothing by Stephen Crane. Not only does Auster tell Crane’s life story but he analyzes Crane’s writing — why it works when it does and why it doesn’t work when it doesn’t. Excerpts from Crane’s works are plentiful. In many ways Crane’s life was tragic — but Auster makes the case that what Crane left was a body of work that deserves to be in with the greatest works of American Literature. Auster is also an excellent narrator. You won’t be disappointed.

A great book to read in order to understand the beginning of modern American literature.

An exhaustive, entertaining biography of one of the most omnipresent but least understood figures in American letters. Auster’s patience with his subject begets a great unfolding of a life most only know only to be the name associated with The Red Badge of Courage—it is so much more.

Wow, Crane Is Great!

This is one of the best books I’ve listened to for ages. I was so sad when Crane died as I knew he would. I really appreciate how much of Crane’s work is shared in this book.