Crane, Hart

O My Land, My Friends: The Selected Letters of Hart Crane with: Ephemera

New York, NY: Four Walls Eight Windows, 1997. First Printing. Hardcover. A collection of letters by Hart Crane (1899-1932), the short-lived, high-impact American Modernist poet best known for collections like White Buildings (1926) and his major experimental long poem, The Bridge (1930). Crane was born in Ohio and attended high school in Cleveland before dropping out and heading to New York. One fact about Crane that Your Devoted VP-of-Operations here at Third Mind Books has always found interesting is that The Bridge was cardinally intended as an uplifting counter to “The Waste Land” by T.S. Eliot (1888-1965). This, because Crane — a mostly closeted, depressed homosexual, — did not particularly relish existence. On April 27, 1932 — approximately two years after The Bridge debuted — Crane drunkenly ended his life by jumping off a steamship into the Atlantic Ocean. Despite this dramatic and sorrowful denouement, O My Land, My Friends stands in testament to the poet’s supreme talent and deserving poetic legacy. From the collection of Laurence Goldstein (1943-2023), a renowned American poet, film critic, author & professor here at the University of Michigan. Hardcover in unclipped dust jacket: “First Printing May 1997,” per copyright page. Inside volume (at FFEP) we have found & have retained two pieces of ephemera relating to Goldstein and the volume here offered — a press release (which suggests that this may have been sent to Goldstein in advance to review) as well as a printed, annotated copy (2 sheets) featuring the poem, “Fish Food: An Obituary to Hart Crane) by the Late Modernist poet & critic, John Brooks Wheelwright (1897-1940). Presumably, if all the dots we’re correcting are right, Goldstein may have used Wheelwright’s poem as the basis for his own review of this work (or at the very least, for his own authorial reflections on the towering, legendary Crane). A workhorse Crane collectible in its rarest contemporary form, enriched with relevant ephemera & distinguished provenance. Book in Very Fine condition with only minute-to-moderate shelf-wear, some light bumping & generally minute-to-mild rubbing to fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine-edge; otherwise, clean. Dust jacket in generally strong Fine condition with only correspondent light shelf-wear, rubbing, some light bumping, & a few low visibility crease-indentations present along fine-edges & corners of front, back covers & spine-edge at varying locales; otherwise, pristine. Ephemera in very fine condition: folded in thirds & exhibiting slight edge-wear; otherwise, generally clean. Very Fine / Fine. [Item #9017]

Price: $30.00