Description:

Hart Crane's Landmark, "The Bridge", Rare Presentation Edition

CRANE, Hart. The Bridge. New York: Horace Liveright, (1930). Octavo, original dark blue cloth. Housed in a blue cloth box. Half-inch of spine chipped with loss, small chip to lower edge of spine. Very good condition, housed in a custom box.

First American edition, an extraordinary signed presentation copy inscribed to an intimate friend a month after publication: "For Bob Thompson, from his friend always- Hart Crane, Brooklyn, April 30."

During the early part of 1930, Robert 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.'" Unterecker cites unpublished correspondence to Caresse Crosby and reports an evening which Crane spent in Hoboken with Thompson, the memory of which was obliterated by "deadly… needle beer."

"There are certain single volumes of American poetry… 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 voice… This tone, so apparent in Hart Crane's work… 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 (Tóibín, 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.

Without scarce original dust jacket. An unusual inscription, presumably in Thompson's hand, appears on the front pastedown opposite Crane's presentation. This note, surrounded by a black border, records the significant details of Crane's death: "April 28,1932, S/S Orizaba, Capt. Blackadder."

Crane presentation copies are of the utmost rarity, and this personal and significant association is of exceptional desirability and importance.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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