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Preface
- Southern Illinois University Press
- Chapter
- Additional Information
xi Preface Caresse Crosby (–) and her husband Harry Crosby (–) founded the Black Sun Press in Paris in . As patrons of expatriate writers ,they befriended and published such influential figures as D.H.Lawrence, Hart Crane, Kay Boyle, Ernest Hemingway, and James Joyce and reprinted literary classics in letterpress editions. After Harry’s death in , Caresse directed the press for the next thirty years, adding to its list works by Marcel Proust,William Faulkner,Dorothy Parker,and Paul Eluard.She published four volumes of Harry’s poetry,introduced by T.S.Eliot,D.H.Lawrence,and Ezra Pound. Her own first volume of poetry appeared under the Houghton Mifflin imprint in , and Dial Press published her autobiography, The Passionate Years, in . After she returned to the United States, her life intersected with such figures as Henry Miller, Romare Bearden, Salvador Dalí, Buckminster Fuller, and Anaïs Nin. She published several volumes of Portfolio , an international journal of literature and the arts. Furthermore, she spent a small fortune advocating world peace and women’s rights. My principal research has been conducted at the Crosby archives at Morris Library, Southern Illinois University. The Crosby collection totals boxes, books, and packages of materials related to the Black Sun Press. Included are Harry’s letters to Caresse and his mother; letters to and from D. H. Lawrence, Hart Crane, Kay Boyle, James Joyce, and Eugene Jolas; and unpublished notebooks, manuscripts, newspaper clippings, and a nearly complete collection of Black Sun books. There is a massive exchange of letters between Crosby and her family and friends, and materials concerning her literary and political activities from to .An unpublished sequel to her popular and highly praised autobiography throws light on how she viewed her achievements and failures. Preface xii The Harris Collection in John Hay Library at Brown University houses a smaller Crosby archive,including ten volumes of Harry Crosby’s holograph notebooks.Additional materials exist in the Berg Collection of the NewYork Public Library, the Beinecke Library at Yale University, the University of Connecticut at Storrs, and the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas in Austin. Crosby was a dedicated patron of the arts, an innovative and creative publisher, a skillful writer of memoir (less so of poetry and drama), an active promoter of world peace, a person who enjoyed her sometimes embattled career. The life of Caresse Crosby is a story about a woman who first achieves recognition as a famous person’s wife, about a woman who suffers criticism from family and friends because she pursues interests conventionally restricted to the men of her class. It is about a woman who believes in her own moral agency. Caresse Crosby found her own way to reconcile herself to living in the shadow of Harry Crosby’s death. In the process, she far surpassed her programmed role as the mirror companion of her husband. She paid a high price to pursue the life of a defiant, spirited, and talented woman, but she never lost her sense of humor. I would like to thank David Koch,Associate Dean of Special Collections; Shelley Cox, Rare Books Librarian; Katharine Salzmann, Archivist/Manuscripts Curator;Sheila Ryan,Interim Manuscripts Curator;and DianeWorrell, Photographs Librarian, all of Morris Library, for their graciousness, generosity , and erudition. As research assistant, Levi Burkett was meticulous in navigating the photo collection. I would also like to thank Jim Simmons, former editorial director of Southern Illinois University Press, for his enthusiasm during the early days of this project. I extend much gratitude to former press director Rick Stetter and to editor-in-chief Karl Kageff for their continued support,patience,and encouragement. I am grateful to the following libraries, trusts, and individuals for permission to consult and/or reprint from materials in their private collections and/or under their jurisdiction: Special Collections Research Center, Morris Library, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Caresse Crosby Papers, Collection , Photo Collection Brown University Library, John Hay Library, Harris Collection, Black Sun Press Archive National Library of Canada and National Archives of Canada [3.82.232.31] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 13:55 GMT) Preface xiii Andrea Mihalovic-Lee, the Romare Bearden Foundation Bob Rosenthal, the Allen Ginsberg Trust Ian von Franckenstein and the Estate of Kay Boyle and the Watkins/Loomis Agency Carole Cleaver Rodman, the Estate of Selden Rodman Barbara W. Stuhlmann, the Estate of Anaïs Nin Allegra Fuller Snyder, the Estate of Buckminster Fuller Fred Dennis, the Estate of Sylvia Beach Stephen James Joyce...