The Collected Crane Archives: Hart Crane

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to bring them now, as I understand -- so that it may be this time next year before the book ac-tually comes out. You see the publishers all know that such poetry is a dead financial loss to them its audience being extremely limited, but they never-theless bring out (I mean a few of them do) a certain amount of such work when they think it flatters their literary judgement [sic] before the public and proves them to be more interested in literature than so-called "best-sellers". However, the radio and cross-word puzzles and other such baby-rattles for the great American public have as badly cut into book sales this last year than most publishers have [feet?] it seriously -- and shy at such philanthropic interests as good poetry. This is the only reason that Waldo Frank has to doubt the acceptance of Hart Crane's poems by his publisher -- but he is going to attempt the [improble, striked-through] improbable, anyway, and let me know within 10 days or so.

Someone was telling me about reading that the paper had left the Island and that settlers were pulling up by the wholesale. Have you got any such news as yet. It all sounds perfectly plausible to me. But a few Americans less on the Island would certainly not spoil it for me, and we're all fed up on papers anyhow.

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