The Collected Crane Archives: Hart Crane

Hart Crane

Hart Crane (born Harold Hart Crane), often referred to as "the Poet's Poet," was born in Garrettsville, Ohio on 21 July 1899 to Grace Edna Hart and Clarence Arthur Crane. Clarence owned several facilities as part of the Crane Chocolate Co., and is most known for having created Life Savers: a candy alternative to chocolate that could withstand the summer heat. Hart Crane had a fraught relationship with both of his parents. He referred to his mother as “Grace” in letters to her, but was particularly resentful toward his father following his parents' divorce when he was seventeen. Clarence’s disapproval of his son’s poetic ambitions only exacerbated their relationship. (Crane once referred to his father as the "chocolate maggot.”[1]) However, he was financially reliant upon Clarence, as their correspondences show a continual pleading for funds. Before he transitioned to full-time work as a poet, Crane spent some time working for the family business and also worked as an advertiser.

Crane befriended, in some capacity, other literary figures, such as Katherine Anne Porter, E. E. Cummings, Marianne Moore, Allen Tate, Sherwood Anderson, Harriet Monroe, William Carlos Williams, Waldo Frank, and Caresse and Harry Crosby. Crane's first published poem was "My Grandmother's Love Letters." His writings were published in many little magazines, including Broom, The Dial, Poetry, the Little Review, Secession, and more. He published two volumes of poetry in his lifetime: White Buildings (1926) and The Bridge (1930), the latter of which was published by the Crosby's Black Sun Press in Paris. Oftentimes noted as "ambitious," Crane modernized the epic in his attempts to capture the Brooklyn Bridge in its mythic, American essence by uniting the temporalities of the past and the present. First edition of The Bridge published by the Black Sun Press.
Awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1931 for his creative writing, he was appointed twelve months in Mexico. According to his biographer Paul L. Mariani, in The Broken Tower: A Life of Hart Crane, this was for him to work on "a poetic drama, on the Conquest, to capture the exact moment of contact between the Spanish and the Indigenous populations -- Cortés and Montezuma."[2] This work never came to fruition, though he wrote "The Broken Tower" in 1932. This same year, while traveling back to the United States aboard the Orizaba, he was "reported to have fallen or jumped from the liner," according to a contemporary New York Times article.[3] 


Endnotes
[1] The Letters of Hart Crane: 1916-1932 edited by Brom Weber. University of Florida Libraries, 1965, pp. 187. 
[2] Mariani, Paul L. The Broken Tower: A Life of Hart Crane. W. W. Norton, 2000, pp. 386. 
[3] “Poet’s Death Linked with Loss of Father; Hart Crane, Missing from Ward Liner, Had Been Grieving, Friends Say.” New York Times, 29 April 1932, pp. 4. 

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How to Cite: Each photograph has a corresponding citation (seen directly below the chosen photograph). Though Crane's unpublished writings are in the public domain, we ask -- out of respect for the universities and other institutions that have kindly and diligently provided their materials -- that all photographs should be cited in any publications, social media or blog posts, etc. 

Transcriptions: All transcriptions have been done by Francesca Mancino unless otherwise noted. If quoting her transcription(s), we ask that she is credited in a citation. 

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The Collected Crane Archives is a growing project. If you have questions, suggestions, proposed amendments, or thoughts regarding additional content, please email Francesca Mancino (fxm205@case.edu). 

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