Hart Crane : after his lights

308 Pages·2006·5.36 MB·English

by  Crane

Hart Crane
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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
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Hart Crane
After His Lights
Brian M. Reed
The University of Alabama Press
Tuscaloosa
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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