INSCRIBED TO JOHN ROEBLING

The Bridge. A Poem. (INSCRIBED TO JOHN ROEBLING)

New York: Horace Liveright, 1930. 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 — from Hart Crane, August ‘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 ... ‘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], ‘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 ‘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. Item #32565

Price: $75,000.00

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