 Sources report that following an encounter with a male prostitute that spring, Crane began a novel on the subject entitled "Flowers of Asphalt," which he later abandoned.The manuscript has never been recovered.After discovering that "McClure's" could not afford to pay him, Crane took his war novel to Irving Bacheller of the Bacheller-Johnson Newspaper Syndicate, which agreed to publish "The Red Badge of Courage" in serial form.