CRANE, Hart; Walker EVANS (photographs). The Bridge: A Poem. Paris: The Black Sun Press. 1930.
8vo. Original printed wrappers with fold-over flaps enclosed in a glassine dust jacket, housed in the publisher’s silver paper-covered slipcase; tiny loss to bottom of front wrapper; slipcase splitting along top and bottom edges; internally fine.
First edition, one of the original 284 copies of Crane’s poetical masterpiece.
Hart Crane is a singular figure in American poetry, seeking a Romantic voice in the era of high Modernism. The Bridge is undeniably his most significant work; his answer to T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land and the Cantos of Ezra Pound. It is one which finds hope and optimism in a century where Eliot saw only despair, sadly ironic given Eliot’s long life and Crane’s tragic suicide at 32. This is one of Black Sun Press’ typically beautiful productions, one of a total edition of 284, made particularly special by the inclusion of illustrative photographs by Crane’s friend, the legendary photographer Walker Evans.
The Black Sun Press was an English-language publishing house based in Paris. Founded in 1927 by American expatriates Harry and Caresse Crosby, it published the early works of influential literary figures such as James Joyce, Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, D.H. Lawrence, and Hemingway. The books, all handset, were typographically impeccable and wonderfully bound. The Black Sun Press was one of the longest running of its kind, closing only in 1970 following Caresse Crosby’s death.
Minkoff A-32
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