Description
“DISTINCTLY PRAISE THE YEARS”: PRESENTATION COPY OF WHITE BUILDINGS, HART CRANE’S FIRST BOOK, WONDERFULLY INSCRIBED BY HIM
CRANE, Hart. White Buildings: Poems by Hart Crane. New York: Boni & Liveright, 1926. Octavo, original half blue cloth, original dust jacket.
First edition, second issue (as virtually always), presentation copy, of Crane’s first book, one of only 500 copies. Inscribed: “Distinctly praise the years—for Margaret Floyd, affectionately, Hart Crane.”
Crane has been described as “one of those poets who need to undergo no development, who seemed fully formed from the start, the rare handful that includes Marlowe, Blake, Rimbaud? White Buildings [is] already upon the heights” (Bloom, The Western Canon, 46). “Crane’s first book did not easily reach publication. After some consideration, it was rejected by Samuel Jacobs of the Golden Eagle Press, the firm responsible for e.e. cummings’ Tulips and Chimneys. Waldo Frank assisted Crane’s further search, finally engaging Boni & Liveright under the condition that Eugene O’Neill write a foreword. O’Neill initially agreed, but several months later he changed his mind. Allen Tate, a friend of all concerned, offered to write the foreword under O’Neill’s name. Eventually, it appeared under Tate’s own name, with a blurb by O’Neill on the dust jacket. Second issue, as usual, with Allen Tate’s name correctly spelled on the cancel title page. The entire first printing consisted of only 500 copies: 50 were sent out to reviewers with Tate’s name misspelled; these 50 comprise the first issue. For the balance of the run, the title page was reset and tipped in (as in the present copy). Schwartz & Schweik AI.2. The signature and inscription are both in Crane’s hand, though they appear to have been executed at different times, suggesting that Crane may have had this book in his possession, already signed, and then added the inscription prior to presenting it to Ms. Floyd. The quotation “distinctly praise the years” comes from “For the Marriage of Faustus and Helen,” which Crane wrote in 1923 and which is included in White Buildings as an optimistic answer to T.S. Eliot’s decidedly pessimistic The Wasteland. Faustus, riding a streetcar, represents the poet in search of beauty, while Helen, in a jazz club, is that which the poet seeks. In the quoted section, Crane triumphantly announces the victory of poetry and beauty over turmoil and war, even during World War I. Bookplate of poet and author Coman Leavenworth. A few pencil notations. Clippings related to Hart’s death laid in.
Book very good, with light dampstaining to top inner corner of text, scattered foxing, minor discoloration to boards. Scarce fragile dust jacket extremely good, with mild toning and tape repair to verso. A most desirable inscribed presentation copy. Rare.
