Black Sun Press - Expand Literary Circle

Expand Literary Circle

Their literary tastes matured and they sought out their Parisian literary friends and offered to publish their writing. Their friends included D. H. Lawrence, for whom they published a limited edition of The Escaped Cock in September 1929 (also published as The Man Who Died). Lawrence later wrote the introduction to Harry Crosby's volume of poetry, Chariot of the Sun.

Harry occasionally spent time with one of their authors, Ernest Hemingway, who he had met skiing, and in July 1927 they visited Pamplona for the running of the bulls. Harry often drank to excess when with Hemingway. Although Harry spoke fluent French, they socialized primarily among fellow American expatriates. They became close friends with some of the authors they worked with. When Harry visited New York in 1928, he cashed in some stock dividends to help Boyle pay for an abortion.

In 1928, Harry's cousin Walter Berry died, leaving a considerable collection of over 8,000 mostly rare books. In his will he left "all the rest of my books...except such books which Edith Wharton may desire to take...I give and bequeath to my cousin, Harry Grew Crosby." Harry eagerly campaigned to persuade Berry's long-time friend Edith Wharton to give him a great many of the books, and in the end she kept less than 100. Harry prized the collection at first but he became enamored of the idea of reducing the things around him. Caresse later wrote, "We had talked to a wise man in Egypt in 1928 who said, 'My wealth I measure by the things I do without,' and Harry believed the books weighed him down." Every morning he would leave with a satchel full of rare books, despite Caresse's attempts to persuade him otherwise, and give them to waiters, barmen, and cab drivers; sometimes he would sneak them into antiquarian bookshops that lined the Seine with ridiculously low prices penciled into them.

The Black Sun Press also published the poetry of Archibald MacLeish, who had like Harry overturned the normal expectations of society, rejecting a career as a lawyer with one of Boston's best law firms and lecturing at Harvard. Harry offered to publish MacLeish's long poem Einstein in a deluxe edition, and paid MacLeish US$200 for his work. They printed 150 copies which were quickly sold.

In February 1929, Hart Crane arrived in Paris. He had received $2,000 from Arts patron Otto H. Kahn in 1928 to begin work on what became a book-length poem, The Bridge, but was frustrated at his lack of progress. He wore out his welcome at the home of his lover, Emil Opffer, and Crane left for Paris in early 1929. After he got to Paris, Harry offered him the use of the Crosby's country retreat, Le Moulin du Soleil, in Ermenonville, so he could concentrate on working on his poem. Crane spent several weeks there and roughed out a draft of the "Cape Hatteras" section, a key part of the epic poem. In late June that year, Crane returned from the south of France to Paris. Harry noted in his journal, "Hart C. back from Marseilles where he slept with his thirty sailors and he began again to drink Cutty Sark..." Crane, a heavy drinker since his early days in New York, got drunk at the Cafe Select and fought with waiters over his tab. When the Paris police were called, he fought with them and was beaten. They arrested and jailed him, fining him 800 francs. After six days in prison at La Santé, Harry Crosby paid Crane's fine and advanced him money for the passage back to the United States where he finally finished The Bridge.

In 1929, through bookstore owner Sylvia Beach, they contacted James Joyce and arranged to print three of his stories that had already appeared in translation. They named the new book Tales Told of Shem and Shaun (which was later integrated into Finnegans Wake), for which they paid Joyce US$2000 for 600 copies, unusually good pay for Joyce at that time. Their printer Roger Lescaret erred when setting the type, leaving the final page with only two lines. Rather than reset the entire book, he suggested to the Crosby's that they ask Joyce to write an additional eight lines to fill in the remainder of the page. Caresse refused, insisting that a literary master would never alter his work to fix a printer's error. Lescaret appealed directly to Joyce, who promptly wrote the eight lines requested. The first 100 copies of Joyce's book were printed on Japanese velum and signed by the author. It was hand-set in Caslon type and included an abstract portrait of Joyce by Constantin Brâncuşi, a pioneer of modernist abstract sculpture. Brâncuşi's drawings of Joyce became among the most popular images of him.

During the rest of 1929, they published fourteen works by Ernest Hemingway, James Joyce, René Crevel, T. S. Eliot, and Ezra Pound among others. The Crosbys also published early works by newly emerging writers including Ramon Sartoris, Julien Levy, and Dorothy Parker.