HART CRANE”S PERSONAL COPY WITH THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF HIS POEM “AVE MARIA” SIGNED BY HIM.
THE AMERICAN CARAVAN. A Yearbook of American Literature
New York: The Literary Guild, 1927. A collection of original essays, stories, and poems by 72 writers of the 1920s. Contributors include Robert Penn Warren, Ernest Hemingway, Eugene O'Neill, and Gertrude Stein. Decorative endpapers. Black cloth with gilt titling on spine and on front cover. Corners and margins show wear and the spine has faded. Front hinge a bit loose; rear hinge has pulled away and is loose. Harry Crosby's 1929 diary describes a party where "Kay Boyle made fun of Hart Crane and he was angry and flung The American Caravan into the fire because it contained a story of Kay Boyle's (he forgot it had a poem of his in it)". That would have been The Second American Caravan (Boyle wasn't in the first.). Item #32581
With Hart Crane's bookplate in state F: (white gummed paper, measuring 3 1/8 in. x 4 3/8 in.) on the front paste-down end-paper, applied (by Samuel Loveman) after Crane's death, probably in the mid-1950s. [See K. Lohf, “The Library of Hart Crane,” Proof, Vol. 3, 1973]. Contains the first publication of his poem “Ave Maria” on pp. 804-806, signed "Hart Crane" at the end of the poem in blue ink. This book was from Hart Crane’s library and was handed down to Betty Crane Madden and given by her to Vivian Pemberton, Emeritus Professor of English at Kent State University and a recognized authority on Hart Crane. Schwartz and Schweik B 9.
Price: $2,500.00