Rolling Stock

This novel, Rolling Stock, is a meta-fiction juxtaposing excerpts from several of the author Stephen Crane’s works with invented lives of his characters. Stephen Crane died at the age of 29 in 1900, having lived a full life of advocacy for poor and disenfranchised American. Ernest Hemingway once said that had Crane not died so young, he quite possibly would have been the greatest American writer. His depth of characters inspired this author to create more life for them, from Ireland to New York, on to Nebraska, and finally in England. The story includes Crane’s philanthropic notions toward poverty and prostitution in 19^th-century America. This work is a historical study as well as a creative interpretation of who Stephen Crane was.

Deola Morrell-Thompson is a life-long teacher of English, Speech Education, Theatre and Dance. She attended the University of Nebraska, completing coursework toward her Ph.D. in English, emphasis on 19^th-century American Literature. She began research for this novel at her home in Sumner, NE where she resides with her husband and continues to teach students struggling to succeed in Grand Island, NE.