CROSBY, Harry. War Letters. Paris: The Black Sun Press. 1932.
4to. Original calf backed marble boards; gilt lettering to spine with green morocco title labels and raised bands; marbled endpapers and photographic portrait frontispiece of Crosby in uniform; pp. 311, [5]; minimal scuffing of bottom corner of front cover; otherwise extremely well preserved; loosely inserted visiting card of "Mrs Stephen Van Rensselaer Crosby", inscribed in ink "Dear Rita / It was lovely seeing you yesterday. I wish we met oftener. I hope you’ll enjoy these letters. I always feel a great bond with you but our boys are at rest and saved from the hard things of life. Much love / R---" (see below).
First edition, one of a mere 125 copies printed on Navarre paper, with a loosely inserted visiting card apparently inscribed by Henrietta Crosby (1872-1957), mother of Harry Crosby and to whom the card belonged.
Harry Crosby and his wife Caresse Crosby were responsible for the creation of The Black Sun Press, one of the most integral small presses in Paris in the late 1920s. American expatriates living in France, they championed many of the works of the "Lost Generation" including that of James Joyce with Tales Told of Shem and Shaun, later included in the influential Finnegan's Wake. Their literary cohort included the likes of characters such as Ernest Hemingway and D.H. Lawrence.
War Letters was published one year posthumously, following Harry Crosby's shocking suicide in a pact with his lover. It is formed of letters that were sent home to his family during disturbing and life changing war experiences whilst a volunteer in the American ambulance corps.
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