The Bridge; A Poem
New York: Horace Liveright, 1930. First American edition. 8vo, 82pp; blue cloth. Lightly shelf-rubbed; slight wear to spine ends; spine stamping faded a bit; very good in a price-clipped dust jacket with a pair of longish tears to the elbows and some reinforcement with paper tape on the underside. Item #207678
A remarkable association copy, inscribed on the front flyleaf: "To John A. Roebling in hommage to the traditions and great achievements of the Roebling family. From Hart Crane, August '30." The recipient, John Augustus Roebling was the grandson of the architect-designer of the Brooklyn Bridge (John Roebling) and the son of the engineer who oversaw the construction of the span (Washington Roebling). Crane biographer Clive Fisher reports that "Hart sent an inscribed copy of The Bridge to John Roebling, whose grandfather and father had designed and built Brooklyn Bridge . . . and expressed the hope that Roebling would find the poem 'in its way as ambitious and complicated' as the structure which had inspired it. Incapacitated by illness, Roebling left the reply to his wife Margaret, who informed Hart on 23 August that Roebling already owned a copy which he was in the habit of reading aloud to his family. 'It is a cause of gratification to the family that the Brooklyn Bridge which is very near to their hearts should have inspired so remarkable a poem.'" (Hart Crane: A Life, pp. 434-435. Mounted to the half-title page of this copy is the Walker Evans photo of the bridge, clipped from the dust jacket of another copy, perhaps Roebling's other one.
Price: $50,000.00