The Bridge. A Poem
New York: Horace Liveright, 1930. Evans, Walker. 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" Item #32567
Price: $45,000.00