Hart Crane You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. MODERN AND CONTEMPORARY POETICS Series Editors Charles Bernstein Hank Lazer Series Advisory Board Maria Damon Rachel Blau DuPlessis Alan Golding Susan Howe Nathaniel Mackey Jerome McGann Harryette Mullen Aldon Nielsen Marjorie Perloff Joan Retallack Ron Silliman Lorenzo Thomas Jerry Ward You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. Hart Crane After His Lights Brian M. Reed The University of Alabama Press Tuscaloosa You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. Copyright © 2006 The University of Alabama Press Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487–0380 All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Typeface: Minion and Goudy Sans ∞ The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements of American Na- tional Standard for Information Sciences-Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI Z39.48–1984. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Reed, Brian, 1971– Hart Crane : after his lights / Brian M. Reed. p. cm. — (Modern and contemporary poetics) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-8173-1488-0 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8173-1488-1 (alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-0-8173-5270-7 (pbk. : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8173-5270-8 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Crane, Hart, 1899–1932—Criticism and interpretation. 2. Modernism (Literature)—United States. I. Title. II. Series. PS3505.R272Z783 2006 811′.52—dc22 2005020963 You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. Contents Acknowledgments vii A Note on Citation ix Introduction: Hart Crane Again 1 PART ONE: READING CRANE 1. How American 17 2. How Queer 39 3. How Modern 71 PART TWO: CRANE WRITING 4. How to Write a Lyric 97 5. How to Write an Epic 126 PART THREE: READING CRANE 6. Paul Blackburn’s Crane 169 7. Frank O’Hara’s Crane 195 8. Bob Kaufman’s Crane 225 Notes 247 Works Cited 271 Index 287 You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. Acknowledgments This book began as a dissertation written under the supervision of Marjorie Perloff. I owe her immeasurably. Her example and her leadership inspire me always. Terry Castle, Albert Gelpi, and Nicholas Jenkins also deserve humble thanks for spending many long hours helping me shape my initial, inchoate intentions into a rough-and-ready argument. Thankfully, this book no longer much resembles the dissertation I sub- mitted in June 2000. I am grateful to the many poets and scholars that have made the revision process profoundly collaborative, a product of conversa- tions, exchanges, and provocations too numerous for me ever to sort out and acknowledge properly. I would, though, like to single out for special thanks Guy Davenport, Michael Davidson, Tim Dean, Craig Dworkin, Robert Fink, Stephen Fredman, Kornelia Freitag, Alan Golding, Robert von Hallberg, Lyn Hejinian, Jeanne Heuving, Scarlett Higgins, Matthew Hofer, Susan Howe, Meta DuEwa Jones, Lynn Keller, Ming-Qian Ma, James McCorkle, Laura McGrane, Adalaide Morris, Susan Schultz, Susan Stewart, Susan Vanderborg, and Helen Vendler. I am also grateful to my current and former colleagues at the University of Washington, Seattle. I cannot name them all, but I would be remiss if I did not thank in print Carolyn Allen, Herbert Blau, Marshall Brown, Jessica Burstein, Anne Curzan, Steven Goodreau, Nicholas Halmi, Gillian Harkins, Monika Kaup, Margit Rankin, Chandan Reddy, Leroy Searle, Henry Staten, and Kathleen Woodward. Hank Lazer and Charles Bernstein, editors of the University of Alabama Press series Modern and Contemporary Poetics, have been most supportive throughout the publication process. The initial, anonymous readers’ reports You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. viii acknowledgments were invaluable as well. Every author deserves such detailed, constructive criticism. The University of Washington Royalty Research Fund and the Stanford Humanities Center provided me with the time, ¤nancial support, and travel funding that made this book possible. The librarians in the Department of Special Collections and Archives, Kent State University, were remarkably hospitable and helpful during and after my visit, especially Cara Gilgenbach, curator and university archivist. An earlier version of chapter 4 was published in the journal Modernism / Modernity in Fall 2000 under the title “Hart Crane’s Victrola.” I thank Johns Hopkins University Press for permission to reprint material from that essay here. I would also like to thank the Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York for permission to publish excerpts from the unpublished 1928 typed manuscript “The Bridge / A Poem by Hart Crane.” I wrote the bulk of this book in a sunny corner of Chuck Krysieniel’s house, his cats Alley and Sam in constant attendance. He has my profoundest gratitude for giving me a haven, and a home. He has been involved with this project for six years; throughout, he has been a most welcome collaborator. I dedicate this book to my parents, William and Pat Reed. You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press. A Note on Citation Throughout Hart Crane: After His Lights, I will be supplementing the stan- dard MLA documentation style by using the following abbreviations to des- ignate frequently cited works: FOHCP Frank O’Hara’s Collected Poems. HCL Hart Crane’s Letters 1916–32. HCCP Hart Crane’s Complete Poems. HCCPSLP Hart Crane’s Complete Poems and Selected Letters and Prose. O My Hart Crane’s O My Land, My Friends: Selected Letters. SSP A. C. Swinburne’s Selected Poems. SCP A. C. Swinburne’s Complete Works. WW Walt Whitman’s Leaves of Grass. Further bibliographic details for these texts can be found in the Works Cited section. You are reading copyrighted material published by the University of Alabama Press. Any posting, copying, or distributing of this work beyond fair use as defined under U.S. Copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. For permission to reuse this work, contact the University of Alabama Press.
Description: