hart crane, Edition originale (266 résultats)

Evans, Walker (illustrateur). First American edition. Blue boards, a near-fine copy, without dust jacket. Photographic frontispiece by Walker Evans. An amazing association copy, inscribed on the front end paper by Hart Crane to Walker Evans, whose three small photographs illustrated the first edition. To Walker Evans, - / 'clean animosity, - clear name." / from / Hart Crane / New York - Brooklyn in fact / March 25th '30", three days after official publication. Evans was involved in their arrangement in the book and, perhaps, also that of the larger, horizontal image used as the frontispiece in this edition: "With Walker Evans's ownership signature above the inscription. Spine gilt dulled; near fine in blue boards without jacket. From the collection of noted photographer and collector Arnold Crane. Schwartz & Schweik A 3.1. Although their fathers were business acquaintances, the poet and photographer first met in the fall of 1928, when both men were living in Brooklyn Heights, where they often met and shared their sympathetic literary and artistic tastes. Their mutual friend Hans Skolle credited Evans with rescuing the manuscript of "The Bridge" from Crane's destructive, drunken fits. Evans found Crane a file clerk job at the Henry L. Doherty Company, where he worked, but it lasted only a short time. Crane gave a party which Evans attended, along with Crane's other close friends,Sam Loveman, e.e. clummings, Gorham Munson, ands others, celebrating his departure for London and Paris. It was while Crane was in Paris that he met Harry and Caresse Crosby, who agreed to publish a limited edition of "The Bridge," which Crane was then struggling to complete, in the fall of 1929, around the time Evans made a series of portraits of Crane, as James Mellow, Evans's biographer, notes that "there is no definite date for when Crane asked Evans to provide photographs of the Brooklyn Bridge as illustrations for the Crosbys' edition of The Bridge. In January 1929, Crane was courting the painter Joseph Stella, hoping to use one of his dramatic paintings of the bridge as frontispiece.Even as late as Sepember 6 he was offering to get the Crosbys a photo of Stella's picture.Between then and late December the plans had been changed and Crane asked Evans to supply the illustrations," Crane wrote Caresse Crosby, in Janjuary 1930, how he thought Evans "the most living, vital photographer of any whose work I know. More and more", he wrote, "I rejoice that we decided on his pictures rather than Stella's". (O My Land, My Friends, p.422). Although at the beginning of 1930 Evans and Crane saw a good deal of each other, as Crane promoted Evans in advance of The Bridge's publication, by the end of March 1930 their relationship had deteriorated, and in May Evans wrote his friend Hans Skolle, that he was "fed up" and not seeing Crane, who was "beyond redemption" It's not clear to us whether the inscription refers to this quarrel. It was Evans, who in August 1931 bundled Crane, who had been for days drinking alone in his hotel room, and his luggage onto the S.S. Orizaba for his return trip to Mexico. Evans never saw him again.

Hardcover. Etat : Fine. Etat de la jaquette : near fine. First Edition. 1st edition. The title page is a cancel, with Allen Tate's name (who wrote the Foreword) spelled correctly. One of Crane's own copies of his first book (the only one that's ever surfaced, and the only one that's likely to) with his bookplate and his ownership signature (in ink) "Hart Crane, Aug â 31" (he drowned in 1932). This copy should not be confused with 1st editions that just have his bookplate for evidence of ownership, as his family (with all the integrity of hyenas) sold bookplates after his death. Fine in a beautiful dustjacket with the spine faded half a shade else fine condition, quality that parts the clouds to let the Sun shine down, and quite a rare jacket in such condition. Since the title page was canceled immediately, Crane logically opted for author's copies with his friend Tate's name spelled properly. Heavy. Singular. Best copy in the world, so far.

First American edition. Photographic frontispiece by Walker Evans. Original dark blue cloth, uncut; spine faded and with slight wear at ends, a little mild spotting on front cover. Pictorial dust jacket reproducing the Walker Evans frontispiece photograph; jacket worn, ends of spine strengthened on verso. Dark blue half morocco slipcase. First American edition, which appeared three months after the Paris first and incorporated numerous changes (mostly minor), producing Crane's final text. An outstanding and rare presentation copy, inscribed on the front free endpaper by Crane in a neat hand to John Augustus Roebling, the grandson of John Roebling (designer of the bridge) and son of Washington Roebling (the engineer who oversaw the construction of the very bridge which inspired the epic poem): "To John A. Roebling in hommage [sic] to the traditions and great achievements of the Roebling Family â " from Hart Crane, August â 30." A recent Crane biographer refers to this copy and quotes from a letter (of 18 August 1930) presenting it: "In mid-August he sent an inscribed copy of "The Bridge" to John Augustus Roebling . â My devotion to the Brooklyn Bridge as the matchless symbol of America and its destiny prompted this dedication [presentation inscription],' Crane wrote [in the letter], â as I dare say the particular view of the bridge's span from my window on Columbia Heights [in Brooklyn] . inspired the general conception and form of the entire poem.' Only now, with the poem already completed, had he learned that he'd actually shared the same address [in fact the same room at 110 Columbia Heights] with Washington Roebling, the creator of the bridge. He hoped that [Roebling] would find something to admire in the poem, which, Crane added modestly, was in its own way â as ambitious and complicated as was the original engineering project'" (Mariani, "The Broken Tower," p. 356). Affixed to the half-title (probably by Roebling, from a copy he is stated to have previously purchased - ?) under "The Bridge" is the Walker Evans dust jacket photograph cut from another jacket. [Schwartz & Schweik A 3.1]. The letter from Crane to Roebling that accompanied this presentation copy was reproduced in holographic form, along with commentary, in "The Hart Crane Newsletter," Vol. II, No. 2, Spring, 1979, pp. 13-14 (q.v.).The letter itself was last seen at auction at Sotheby's in 1979. Provenance: Unnamed consignor sale, Charles Hamilton Galleries, 4 March 1976, lot 90; Sotheby's Auction, New York, 13 April, 2004.

Hardcover. Etat : Near Fine. Etat de la jaquette : Near Fine. First edition, second issue. Foreword by Allen Tate. Near fine in near fine dustwrapper. Hart Crane's own copy of his first book, with his later ownership Signature: "Hart Crane, Aug. '31" and his bookplate on the front pastedown. Apparently Hart Crane's mother either gave away or sold some of his bookplates shortly after his death to Crane's good friend, the bookseller Samuel Loveman, thus resulting in occasional "association copies" surfacing. However, all of the books that we have seen Signed by him (with the exception of the signed and limited edition of *The Bridge*) were from his personal library.

Evans, Walker (illustrateur). First American edition. Photographic frontispiece by Walker Evans. Original blue cloth, gilt-lettered on front cover and spine (few soil marks); pictorial dust jacket (some minor chipping at edges, a few old tape repairs on verso). Provenance: Kathryn and Nick Kenney (presentation inscription). First American Edition. PRESENTATION COPY, INSCRIBED BY CRANE TO KATHRYN AND NICK KENNEY on the front free endpaper: "For Kay and Nick | With the most affectionate regards | of the 'last | bear, shot drinking in the Dakotas' | Hart Crane | Brooklyn, '30." Kathryn Kenney and Crane met in the spring of 1921 in Cleveland, when she was "a vivacious, enormously talented girl who seemed the focus of every group in which she moved"; she was Crane's "happiest companion as, singing, laughing, alive with irrepressible wit, they would turn their troubles into comedy" (John Unterecker, Voyager: A Life of Hart Crane, New York, 1970, p.210). Kenney later wrote the society column for the Cleveland Times Commercial, though Crane still preferred to think of her as "the famous vaudeville songster" (p.296). Thirty years after Crane's suicide, in 1962, Kenney recollected: "The great laughter which was Hart's most distinctive and charming feature has never, to my knowledge, ever been touched. Not really. And yet, it colored and saved (I am certain) him to the end of his life" (p.201). Connolly, The Modern Movement 64 [Schwarz and Schweik A 3.1]. Christie's New York, Rockefeller Plaza; Masterpieces of Modern Literature: The Library of Roger Rechler Sale, Oct 11, 2002. Lot Number 58, Sale Number 1098; Christie's cataloguer butchered the inscription, rendering it (a phrase from Crane's "Powhatan's daughter") nonsensically as "'last | bear, shit-drinking with | L'Abotas".

Etat : Near Fine. First American Edition. First American edition, preceded by the Paris edition published by Black Sun Press. Signed by Hart Crane on the front free endpaper. Bound in publisher's original dark blue cloth ruled in blind, with titles in gilt on spine and upper board. Near Fine with sunning to cloth at spine and edges, a few light scratches to the boards, light loss to corners and spine ends heaviest at the crown. Pages toned and with a few short edge tears to pages. A work that has critics divided to this day, with some claiming it to be Crane's best work and a masterpiece of American Modernism.

Evans, Walker (illustrateur). First edition. One of 50 copies on Japanese Vellum, signed by Crane. Quarto, original white printed wrappers, with original glassine cover and gilt paper covered slipcase (slipcase slightly rubbed, 1-inch piece missing from bottom edge). A beautiful copy of one of the rarest and most important books of twentieth century poetry, and the first book publication of Evans's work, it was illustrated with three gravures printed actual size from his 1-3/8 inch by 2- 1/2 inch photos.

Hardcover. Etat : Very Good. Etat de la jaquette : Very Good. First edition, second issue. Foreword by Allen Tate. Edges of the boards a little rubbed and worn, some scrapes and small stains on the front fly, very good in very good dustwrapper lacking the top ½" of the spine. In a fine custom quarter morocco clamshell case. Inscribed by Crane to his close friend, the poet Wilbur Underwood: "For Wilbur Underwood with affection always. Hart Crane. January 1927." A few pencil notes and marks in the margin, likely in the hand of Underwood. Underwood, whose archive is at the Library of Congress, published at least a half-dozen volumes of poetry and was associated with the Decadent Movement. He was a veteran of the homosexual underground scene of the period and is perhaps best known as Hart Crane's mentor and confidant. One of the best sources of information on Underwood is Clive Fisher's biography *Hart Crane: A Life*.

Evans, Walker (illustrateur). First edition. Quarto, original white printed wrappers. Expert restoration to the paper on the spine, otherwise a bright, fresh copy with all tissue guards present; original glassine replaced; enclosed in a new slipcase. Copy number 30 of only 50 copies printed on Japan Vellum, signed by Crane. There were an additional 200 copies in the regular issue. One of the most important American poetic works of the twentieth century as well as a significant collaboration between writer and photographer. The Bridge, called "cubism in poetry" when it was initially reviewed in The New York Times, stands as one of the great epics of 20th-century poetry. Cyril Connolly writes that of the poems "some of them. are near perfect and the whole allegory a masterpiece of neo- romanticism" (The Modern Movement, p.62). Its publication was initiated when Crane met Harry and Caresse Crosby on his trip to Europe in 1929. After reading drafts of "The Bridge", they agreed to publish a limited edition under their Black Sun imprint. Crane took up residence in an old mill on the estate of the Conte de la Rochefoucauld which the Crosby's had made into their weekend retreat. Crane hoped to finish the poem that summer, but was arrested for drunk and disorderly conduct and briefly incarcerated in July. Crosby brought Crane's return ticket to the U.S. In December, he and his wife visited Crane in New York. A few days after their visit, Harry committed suicide. Despite her husband's death, Caresse Crosby returned to Paris to see The Bridge through the press. Numerous changes, mostly minor, were incorporated in the American edition, which appeared three months after the first. [Schwartz & Schweik A 2].

First edition. Original blue cloth; spine dull, slight soiling to sides. Dust jacket worn and repaired. Cloth slipcase. First edition of the author's first regularly published book. Presentation copy to Hart Crane, inscribed by Cowley on the front free endpaper: "To Hart | who got this volume | published | if it's bad, on your | shoulders be the sin | Malcolm." With an additional, very long inscription (covering the half-title and its verso) written by Cowley at a later date, explaining how the book got published: "This copy of Blue Juniata has a history. Hart Crane kept insisting that I publish a book of poems. I had the poems in manuscript, but didn't see them as a book. In 1928 Hart took away the manuscript, rearranged it, and retyped much of it (though without making changes in the text). Then he submitted it to what he called a â secret arbiter,' who I found was Gorham Munson, then working for the George H. Doran Company, if I'm not mistaken. Anyhow Doran accepted the manuscript, and that stirred me to action. Always an obstinate Pennsylvania Dutchman [Juniata is a river in west-central Pennsylvania falling into the Susquehanna], I took the ms., gave it another arrangement (though many of Hart's suggestions were good ones, and I followed a few of them), revised most of the poems, and carried the book to another friend in the publishing world, Harrison Smith, who had just founded the new house of Cape & Smith [publisher of Faulkner, et al]. Without the impetus that Hart provided, I mightn't have published it for years. All this explains the dedication on the flyleaf. This was Hart's copy, which he carried with him to Mexico in 1931, and still had with him on SS Orizaba till he jumped overboard in April l932. Peggy Baird Cowley, my divorced wife, was with him on the Orizaba. She rescued Blue Juniata from his belongings and gave the copy back to me. Malcolm Cowley." Five years later Cowley would publish "Exile's Return," his now classic account of the American expatriate writers of the Twenties. Provenance: Jonathan Goodwin (sale, Sotheby Parke Bernet, Part I, 29 March 1977, lot 50); Sotheby's New York, 13 April, 2004.

First edition. 8vo, faint purple stamp on pastedowns; tan paper covered boards, brown cloth spine stamped in darker brown; stamping rubbed away; custom quarter- morocco box. First edition, 600 copies printed. With Porter's ownership inscription on the rear endpaper: "Katherine Anne Porter, her copy - October 9, 1930 Mexico." Additionally inscribed on the front endpaper: "For my dear Hart Crane - | from Katherine Anne, with love. | October, 1930, Mexico D.F." Porter was in New York, for at least a portion of the fall of 1930 as Hart Crane inscribed a copy of "The Bridge" to her in New York, shortly after its publication by Horace Liveright in March 1930. Porter's own first and most famous story was published at the same time, in the spring issue of The Hound and Horn. They became quite friendly as she remained there until returning to Mexico in October 1930. In April 1931, a new Guggenheim fellow, Crane excitedly departed for Mexico where Porter (who also held a Guggenheim fellowship,) had offered her hospitality in a large house in Mexico City, where she had spent much of her time. Crane arrived in April and by June of 1931 Crane's drunken antics - an often told story- had caused Porter to finally break with him. A letter in our possession, from Porter to literary scholar Vivian Pemberton, remarks "In the middle of September [1931] I took off for Europe on my Guggenheim Fellowship desperately happy to be out of that indescribably horrible mess that Siqueiros, a really dangerous man, and Crane, quite literally at that time an unendurable one, had made of my life and almost everyone else's around them.

First edition, second issue. Second issue, with tipped-in title page spelling Allen Tate's name correctly. Inscribed to Solomon Grunberg, a bookseller and close friend of Crane: "For Solomon Grunberg | with best wishes - | Hart Crane." Solomon Grunberg is described by Crane biographer John Unterecker as Crane's most sympathetic, most casual, and most knowledgeable listener. He was among a very small circle of Crane's most intimate friends that included E. E Cummings. Very good condition, with some overall age darkening and dust soiling, the price intact. Spine lettering top and bottom faded, otherwise square and tight. The very scarce dust wrapper, which advertises Pound's Personae on the back cover, has no repairs. The front and back panels and both flaps present but chipped, the spine missing, jacket is in four separate pieces, held together presentably with Mylar wrapper. Schwartz & Schweik A 1.1.

First edition. 8vo, cloth-backed decorative boards. Spine stamping dulled, tips somewhat rubbed, otherwise near fine in a custom quarter-morocco slipcase. First edition of Crane's first book, one of 500 copies printed, the second issue with the corrected title page spelling Allen Tate's name correctly tipped in as a cancel. A significant association copy, inscribed by Crane on the front flyleaf: "For Nathan Asch | with best wishes, | Hart Crane, | 10/31/27" and additionally signed beneath that inscription by Allen Tate. Above Crane's inscription is a small circular ink spot where his pen evidently leaked as he began to write his inscription. A novelist and storyteller - and the son of the great Yiddish writer Sholem Asch -- Nathan Asch was a fixture in the community of American expatriates in Paris, a close friend of Ernest Hemingway and, for a short but intense time, of Hart Crane. At the time of this inscription, Crane and Asch had only recently met, when they were tenants in the same Patterson, New York house belonging to Mrs. Turner, where Tate and Caroline Gordon had also resided, with the Cowleys and Josephsons nearby. It is especially noteworthy that this copy is signed by both Crane and Tate - perhaps the only such copy. A fine relic of Crane's time in Patterson, two weeks before his trip to California. [Schwartz & Schweik A 1.1].

Letter. Very scarce, closely written two-page AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED with superb content two years before the publication of his first book, WHITE BUILDINGS, to his mother, addressed as "Dear Grace." In part: "Another very active week. Luncheon with someone different every day, -- and nearly always someone to take up the evening. But I have been so interested in several incompleted poems that I've sat up very late working on them, and so by the advent of Saturday felt pretty tuckered out. There's no stopping for rest, however, when one is the 'current' of creation, so to speak, and so I've spent all of today at one or two stubborn(?) lines. My work's becoming known for its formal perfection and hard glowing polish, but most of those qualities, I'm afraid, are due to a great deal of labor and patience on my part. Besides working on part of my BRIDGE I'm engaged in writing a series of six sea poems called VOYAGES (they are also love poems) and one of these you will soon see published in '1924,' a magazine published at Woodstock and which I think I told you about heretofore." Crane than writes a poetic paragraph describing the weather and the river before talking about Eugene O'Neill: "O'Neil [sic] has a new play at the Greenwich Village Theatre -- a tragedy called DESIRE UNDER THE ELMS which I'll see sometime this week. He and Agnes were in town for the premiere and I called on them at their rooms in the Lafayette one evening. He seems to have Europe in applause more than America. That's true of Waldo Frank's work in France, also, where he has been much translated and more seriously considered, far more so, than here at home. The American public is still strangely unprepared for its men of higher talents, while Europe looks more and more to America for the renascence of a creative spirit." Crane is happy to get his mother's letters and rejoices in her having "a lyric evening," dancing and drinking. "I still like to think of those five o'clock booze parties we had in the office and how giddily I sometimes came home for dinner. You were very charming and sensible about it all, too, and I thank my stars that while you are naturally an inbred Puritan you also know and appreciate the harmless gambols of an exuberant nature like my own. It all goes to promise that we shall have many merry times together later sometime when we're a little closer geographically." He concludes: "My -- but how the wind is blowing. Rain, too, on the window now! There was a wonderful fog for about 18 hours last week. One couldn't even see the garden close behind the house -- to say nothing of the piers. All night long there were distant tinklings, buoy bells and siren warnings from river craft. It was like wakening into a dream land in the early dawn -- one wondered where one was with only a milky light in the window and that vague music from a hidden world. Next morning while I dressed it was clear and glittering as usual. Like champagne, or a cold [?] to look it. Such a world! Love, as always, your Hart." With the envelope hand-addressed by Crane to "Grace Hart Crane" and SIGNED by him with his address. Also with a 1964 invoice and letter from bookseller Henry W. Wenning. An especially significant piece of Crane's extensive family correspondence, this letter has often been reprinted, appearing specifically in Thomas S. W. Lewis (editor), LETTERS OF HART CRANE AND HIS FAMILY (NY: Columbia UP, 1974), on pages 371-373. And while Lewis's Calendar of Letters indicates that the original is owned by Columbia, recent correspondence with Columbia reveals that that published claim is incorrect: this letter somehow escaped Columbia's acquisition of the Crane archive in the 1950s. A key item of Crane's that has been off the market for nearly 60 years. For the four years preceding Crane's suicide in 1932, Grace Crane had not spoken to her son. She nevertheless became his literary executor and devoted her life to promoting his work. Creases from folding, otherwise about Fine.

Etat : Very Good. First Edition. First edition, second issue with Allen Tate correctly spelled on the tipped-in title page. Signed by Hart Crane and inscribed to a former owner mere months before his suicide, "To Hanna with all good wishes, from Hart Crane Mexico '32." Bound in publisher's paper-covered boards over dark blue spine cloth. Very Good with rubbing to binding and gilt lettering on spine. Pages toned, and with a small bookseller's ticket (Brentano's) to the rear pastedown. Crane has been hailed by many as the most influential poet of his generation. The poet committed suicide at age 32, and books signed by him are uncommon.

First American edition of Crane's landmark modernist epic. Octavo, original blue cloth with gilt titles to the spine and front panel, illustrated with three photographs by Walter Evans. Presentation copy, inscribed by the author on the front free endpaper one month after publication, "For Bob Thompson, from his friend always- Hart Crane, Brooklyn, April 30." The recipient, Robert Thompson, was a close friend of Crane's. During the early part of 1930, Thompson and Crane spent what John Unterecker described as "wild evenings" in New York. Thompson was "a good drinking companion whom Hart in the summer would recommend to Caresse Crosby as 'a former sailor who has got tired of office work and expects to hit the deck again for awhile.'" With Thompson's inscription to the pastedown recording the details of Crane's suicide, "April 28,1932, S/S Orizaba, Capt. Blackadder." In very good condition. Housed in a custom clamshell box. Crane presentation copies are of the utmost rarity, and this personal and significant association is of exceptional desirability. "There are certain single volumes of American poetryâ ¦ which carry with them a special and spiritual power; they seem to arise from a mysterious impulse and to have been written from an enormous private or artistic need. The poems are full of a primal sense of voiceâ ¦ This tone, so apparent in Hart Crane's workâ ¦ matches a sensibility which was both visionary and deeply rooted in the real," especially in The Bridge, the second and last book published during Crane's brief and tragic life (Tà ibÃn, New York Review of Books). As a result of this work, Crane was granted a Guggenheim Fellowship and went to Mexico City to write another verse epic, which never materialized. On his way back to New York, on April 27, 1932, Crane jumped from the S.S. Orizaba into the Caribbean and was drowned.

Hardcover. Etat : Very good. Etat de la jaquette : very good. First Edition. 1st edition of his first book (500 printed). Contemporary signed presentation copy inscribed by Crane (in ink), "For John Wolcott in memoriam the Cleveland days â where cuckoos clucked to finches' Hart Crane." The quote is from Crane's poem, For the Marriage of Faustus and Helen, page 37 of this book (I found no other copy of White Buildings inscribed with a quotation). Very good in a 1st printing dustjacket, the spine faded and one fold strengthened, else very good. Rare, one of only 2 inscribed copies sold at auction in the last 40 years, the other in a defective jacket. Cancelled title page with Allan Tate's name correctly spelled, but only review copies had the uncorrected state so our copy is not a 2nd issue since it exactly replicates the book as it was for sale on the day it was published, and Crane's own copy was also in this state. The line "Where cuckoos clucked to finches" appears in the penultimate stanza of the aecond part (of 3) in Crane's poem For The Marriage of Faustus and Helen, considered by critics one of his greatest poems, which appears on pages 37-44 of this volume of poetry. "O, I have known metallic paradises Where cuckoos clucked to finches Above the deft catastrophes of drums. While titters hailed the groans of death Beneath gyrating awnings I have seen The incunabula of the divine grotesque. This music has a reassuring way." The line apparently suggests the animated conversations taking place at a frenzied jazz club. Crane grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, in the north tower of his family's large home (his father invented Lifesavers, and other candies) at 1709 East 115th Street, his "sanctum de la tour." Wolcott was almost certainly one of the childhood friends that Crane left behind when, at the age of 17, he abandoned Cleveland for New York. The first book (of only 2 before his suicide at the age of 32) and a significant copy of one of the preeminent and influential modernist poets.

Evans, Walker (illustrateur). First edition. From the first edition of 283 copies, this copy is one of only 25 review copies marked "hors commerce". Lightly soiled wrappers with minor wear and sun to the spine. Pages have the occasional faint spotting. Schwartz & Schweik A 2. The Black Sun Press issued a note with hors commerce copies (although not present here) stating "[We] regret that due to a defective impression and quality of paper these advance copies of 'The Bridge,' hors commerce, are considered typographically imperfect. A re-impression on velin Van Gelder of the numbered copies will appear for sale March 1st at the Bookshop of Harry F. Marks, New York." This would indicate that hors commerce copies along with those on Japanese vellum arguably constitute a first impression before the type was reset for the run on Van Gelder, and, indeed there are differences in the line spacing between the printings.

Evans, Walker (illustrateur). First edition. Quarto, original white wrappers, original printed dust jacket, original glassine jacket, untrimmed. Housed in publisher's original silver foil-covered slipcase. Custom boxed. Copy number 121 of 200 copies on Holland paper (from a total edition of only 283 copies). This copy has Crane's bookplate, version "C" (K. Lohf, Proof, 3, 1972), on the front endpaper. Illustrated with three superb tissue-guarded photographs by Walker Evans. The second and last book published during Crane's brief and tragic life, The Bridge was written in violent reaction to the pessimism and disillusionment of post-war American and English poetry, specifically Eliot's Waste Land. Crane's goal was to write a visionary poem integrating American history since the Spanish conquest with present-day realities of business, the marvels of architecture and engineering, and the American spirit of democratic optimism, all held together by one dominant symbol -- the Brooklyn Bridge. His poetic sensibility, akin to the revolutionary aesthetic begun by Walt Whitman and developed by such poets as William Carlos Williams and later Robert Lowell, is at its best in such lyrics as "The Harbor Dawn" and "The River." "Crane finds in America a principle of unity and absolute faith and. in the Brooklyn Bridge, an image of man's anonymous creative power unifying past and present" (Hart, 192). . Connolly, The Modern Movement, 62. Hart Crane's engraved bookplate on inside of front wrapper. Only some darkening and wear to the fragile glassine along the spine; fragile paper spine starting to split, but sound. Some rubbing to edges of the silver-foil publisher's slipcase. Interior fine. Evidenced by the presence of his bookplate in its earliest state, this was Crane's own copy (or one of his copies) of his masterpiece, a cornerstone of modern American poetry, in extremely good condition. [Schwartz & Schweik A 2].

Evans, Walker (illustrateur). First edition. No. 175 of 200 copies (from a total edition of only 283 copies) on Holland paper, printed in red and black. Printed for Harry and Caresse Crosby at the Black Sun Press. A most desirable association copy. The Crosbys visited Crane in New York in late 1929. A few days later, Harry committed suicide. Caresse returned to Paris and supervised the production of this book. This copy is from the library of Caresse Crosby, and bears the leather, joint bookplate of Harry and Caresse on the reverse of the front cover. The three Evans photographs are protected by tissue-guards. Original paper-wrapper covers, front and back. Small cracks to the paper on the spine near the top and a minuscule split at the lower front hinge. A very small chip to spine. Offset from bookplate on endpaper. Contained in the original grey cardboard slipcase covered in a gold-and-silver paper, with a cloth pull; the slipcase has been expertly restored. A fine, fresh copy. Provenance: From the library of Crane scholar Vivian Pemberton, purchased from InternationalBookfinders, 1987. Minkoff: Black Sun Bibliography A-32. pp. 30-31. [Schwartz and Schweik: A 2].

Hardcover. Etat : Very Good. Etat de la jaquette : Very Good. First edition, corrected state with the corrected title page spelling "Allen," rather than "Allan" tipped in. Foreword by Allen Tate. The entire first printing consisted of 500 copies, 50 of which were sent out to reviewers before the mistake was caught. The title page was quickly reset and the revised pages tipped in by hand in the 450 remaining copies. Faint bend in the text block, edgewear on the fragile boards, very good in very good or a little better dustwrapper with one fold strengthened on the verso. Housed in a cloth chemise and quarter morocco slipcase titled in gilt. Inscribed by Hart Crane: "For John Wolcott In Memoriam the Cleveland days 'Where cuckoos clucked to finches' Hart Crane." The line "Where cuckoos clucked to finches" appears in the penultimate stanza of the second part (of three) in Crane's poem *For The Marriage of Faustus and Helen*, considered by critics to be one of his greatest poems and which appears on pages 37-44 of this volume of poetry. The line apparently suggests the animated conversations taking place at a frenzied jazz club. Crane grew up in Cleveland, Ohio in the north tower of his family's large home at 1709 East 115th Street, his "sanctum de la tour." Wolcott was almost certainly one of the young friends who Crane left behind when, at the age of 17, he abandoned Cleveland for New York. A significant copy of the first book (of only two before his suicide at the age of 32) of one of the preeminent and influential modernist poets.

Soft cover. Etat : Near Fine. 1st Edition. Crane is a singular figure in American poetry in that he sought a Romantic voice in the era of high Modernism. The Bridge is easily his most significant work, his answer to Eliot s The Waste Land or the Cantos of Ezra Pound, and one which finds hope and optimism in his century where Eliot saw only despair, which is sadly ironic given Eliot s long life and Crane s suicide at 32. This is one of Black Sun Press typically beautiful productions, one of an edition of 284. Includes the original slipcase which is a bit damaged, and is otherwise an excellent copy of this scarce and much loved title, made particularly special by the inclusion of illustrative photographs by Crane s friend, the legendary photographer Walker Evans.

First edition. Complete run of Eugene and Maria Jolas's landmark literary journal, which - along with Margaret Anderson's THE LITTLE REVIEW - was one of the primary vehicles of Modernist and experimental writing. Over the course of 11 years, often times under great financial difficulty, they published a who's-who of modernist and experimental authors, alongside the work of Surrealist, Expressionist, and Dada artists: "TRANSITION would explore the literary currents washing over Europe and America, present them all if they showed 'imaginative emancipation' as against descriptive naturalism" (Hoffman). Beginning with the very first issue, they published several portions of James Joyce's Work in Progress (Finnegans Wake), and notably, Jolas's English translation of Kafka's METAMORPHOSIS, which appeared in issues 24-26. Contributors across other issues include Kay Boyle, Samuel Beckett, Ernest Hemingway, Hilda Doolittle, Paul Bowles, Hart Crane, Gertrude Stein, Bob Brown, Malcolm Cowley, Robert Graves, Dylan Thomas, André Breton, André Gide, Marcel Duchamp, and others. A notoriously fragile publication, with complete sets in original condition seldom encountered in commerce, TRANSITION is a difficult run to assemble - especially in original wrappers and in collectible condition. A rare monument to Modernism and the early avant garde. Twenty-seven issues bound in twenty-five volumes, early issues 7.5'' x 5.5'', later 8.6'' x 6''. Original typographic and pictorial wrappers all. Various paginations (circa 150-325 pages most). Most issues have light wear to extremities, gentle sunning to spines and wrappers, some of the usual tanning to text edges, with occasional small edge tears, and some dust-soil to wrappers; small loss to front wrapper on No.3, with some small nicks, tears, and attendant creases to the taller issues; a few issues with previous owners names, another half-dozen with occasional foxing or minor soil to spines or wrappers; No.18 with shallow loss to lower margin of one plate; in many volumes, pages are still unopened. Very good to near fine overall.

Hardcover. Etat : Very Good. First Edition. One of 50 copies on Japanese Vellum, signed by Hart Crane. Contents completely fine, a very fresh copy. Covers generally bright and clean (see photos), but the spine tips are dulled where the glassine is also worn. There is a professionally repaired thin paper-split down the spine, now manifesting as a crease (see photo). During the repair, thin paper reinforcement was added underneath, so that the book can now be laid open flat -- and actually enjoyed. The book is also now supported by a thick mylar wrap, which makes it easier to handle. A modernist highspot at a very attractive price.

Three photographs by Walker Evans, 10.5 x 8.75, wrap in glassine cover, unpag, one corner with very gentle bump else nice fresh copy in splitting silver slipcase. FIRST ED, ONE OF 200 NUMBERED COPIES.

Evans, Walker (illustrateur). First edition. First edition Quarto, original white printed wrappers, small ownership "chop" on front endpaper, a fine copy in original silver paper slipcase. No. 97 of 200 numbered copies on Holland paper. [Schwartz & Schweik A 2].

Evans, Walker (illustrateur). First edition. Quarto, original white printed wrappers, copy number 104 out of 200 on Holland paper. Wrappers fine, just a bit of wear to the spine of the original glassine, original silver-paper slipcase worn, missing its ends and with a bit bent down and peeling. [Schwartz & Schweik A 2].

first edition, second printing. Crane's first book, one of 250 copies printed in September 1929. Cloth backed batik paper boards, very good in defective dust jacket. Although Albert Boni had sold his interest in the firm to Horace Liveright in 1919, the publisher's name remained "Boni & Liveright" until 1928, when it was changed to "Horace Liveright, Inc." 8vo. Blue cloth backstrip over batik paper boards, gilt-lettered spine. Very good in defective dust jacket. Inscribed -- a quote from "The River" section of "Powhatan's Daughter," this book is inscribed to Margaret Babcock Robson, who was a close friend of the Cowleys, and one of the most helpful of Crane's friends: She had typed large portions of "The Bridge. " The phrase was first published in "The Second American Caravan," in 1928. [Schwartz & Schweik A 1.2].

Evans, Walker (illustrateur). First edition. Quarto, original white printed wrappers, glassine cover, silver-gilt paper slipcase in pieces, light offsetting to the front end-papers, and with the usual slight discoloration to the covers, and a few small spots to the spine. Basically, a fine copy, fresh and clean. One of 200 numbered copies on Holland paper. The first book illustrated by Walker Evans, with three photogravures.

4to, original white printed wrappers, original glassine, in publisher's silver-gilt paper covered slipcase. Expert archival restoration to slipcase, light offsetting to the front end papers, and with the usual discoloration to the covers where the book is pulled out of the slipcase, otherwise a very good copy of an increasingly rare book. Expert archival restoration to slipcase, light offsetting to the front end papers, and with the usual discoloration to the covers where the book is pulled out of the slipcase, otherwise a very good copy of an increasingly rare book First edition of Crane's masterpiece. One of 200 numbered copies printed on Holland Paper. Schwartz & Schweik A2. Minkoff A32. Connolly 100, 64. One of the seminal American poems of the Twentieth Century, about which Harold Bloom has noted: "what is imperishable in The Bridge is not its lyric mourning, but its astonishing transformation of the sublime ode into an American epic, uneven certainly but beyond The Waste Land in aspiration and accomplishment." - Introduction to The Complete Poems of Hart Crane (N. Y.: Liveright, 2000). In 1928, Crane and Evans met for the first time under Brooklyn Bridge, "Evans with his vest-pocket camera and Crane with his notebook. They recognized each other as kindred spirits and fell naturally into conversation. Crane was fascinated by photography. . . ." After first considering a reproduction of Joseph Stella's cubist painting of the Brooklyn Bridge to illustrate his poem, Crane decided that he "wanted to use three of Evans' photographs of the bridge as separate plates within the text." Evans's photographs were published for the first time in The Bridge, and since then have become identified not only with Crane's poem, but with the Brooklyn Bridge itself, in the artistic and literary imagination. - Belinda Rathbone, Walker Evans. A Biography (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1995), pp. 41-52.