The writer Stephen Crane (1871-1900) and the painter George Bellows (1882-1925) each wrestled with issues specific to their own fields. But both also have much in common. John Fagg tells their stories in alternating chapters that highlight the common vocabularies of art and literature: ellipses, frames, and aphorisms in Crane's writing, and Bellows's use of anecdote, schema, and cliché.