Stephen Crane 
Maggie A Girl Of The Streets 

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is an 1893 novella by American author Stephen Crane who was born in 1871 and lived a tragically young life. The story centers on Maggie, a young girl from the Bowery who is driven to desperate circumstances by poverty and solitude. Written when Crane was only 22 its strong sense of literary realism and hard edged themes caused publishers to back away from it. So Crane published it himself under the pseudonym Johnston Smith. Of course Crane then wrote the grand work of his life The Red Badge Of Courage which was published in 1895. Such was the success of that book that it allowed him to re-publish Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, albeit with many changes in 1896. Stephen Crane died in 1900.