The Collected Poems of Hart Crane; Edited with an Introduction by Waldo Frank

Crane, Hart

Published by Liveright, Inc, New York, 1933

About this Item

8vo, 179pp; original maroon cloth stamped in gilt and blind. A notable association copy of the first edition from the library of John H. Birss, a Rutgers University professor, specialist on Herman Melville and one of the earliest scholars -- and collectors -- of Crane's work. On the front flyleaf he has written: "This was the first book of Hart's to come to me - in the fall of 1933. It is my reading copy - the copy I live with. J. Birss. On the recto of the frontispiece leaf is mounted an original arcde photograph portrait of Crane with Birss's note: "Hart Crane - An unpublished photograph -- taken in a penny-arcade, New York, November 6, 1926." Beneath the frontispiece image itself, Birss adds: "The original of this painting [by David Alfaro Siqueiros] is no more. Hart destroyed it during one of his drunken frenzies. J.B." Throughout the rest of the book are Birss's notes and comments along with a number of Crane-related clippings and tear-sheets, book catalogue descriptions, typed notes, pictures, etc. A detail among these: mounted to the verso of the half-title is a proof page prepared by critic Ralph Thompson as a postscript to his 1937 New York Times review of Philip Horton's biography of Crane. It describes an eyewitness report of Crane's suicide that Birss had relayed to him. In Birss's annotation on this page he notes that "R.T. welcomed this information from me, but he was not permitted to publish it -- being over-ruled by his managing editor . . . Ralph had five copies of the proof pulled; gave me four, kept one for himself." Front inner hinge cracked; spine faded; a variety of taped and glued inserts and annotations.

Seller Inventory # 207686

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Collected Poems of Hart Crane; Edited with an Introduction by Waldo Frank
• Publisher: Liveright, Inc, New York
• Publication Date: 1933
• Edition: First Edition.