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Voyager: A Life of Hart Crane
A biography of the American poet which attempts to reveal the true artist
831 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1969
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 27, 2007
One of my favorite biographies. It will make you love Crane even more.
August 11, 2023
Highly recommended to anyone who is interested in this enigmatic poet. (His letters should also be read.)
May 15, 2024
An 800 page biography of an often difficult poet who died at 32. In the end it did help with the poems, but the reader has to go through a lot to get there.
This is very much in the vein of the psychological criticism that was so big in the 50s and 60s. The author explicitly says he wants to understand the man, Crane, and the poems just seem to come along for the ride. Since Crane left all those letters behind, Unterecker has lots to quote. And he does. He quotes the letters to and from Crane at length, sometimes for pages. And then the reader can go many many pages without finding any poems quoted (in fact, he went so long I wondered if the Crane estate had forbidden him to quote the poetry except for the most specific circumstances--like the Eliot estate did for so long).
As one might expect, Unterecker dwells on the dissipation and insanity of the last few years, of the sex and drunkenness that came to define Crane for so long. That finally destroyed him.
But along the way, explanatory nuggets happen and moments in some of the important poems become clearer, even if lots of puzzles are left behind. That made the work of reading this worthwhile.
This is very much in the vein of the psychological criticism that was so big in the 50s and 60s. The author explicitly says he wants to understand the man, Crane, and the poems just seem to come along for the ride. Since Crane left all those letters behind, Unterecker has lots to quote. And he does. He quotes the letters to and from Crane at length, sometimes for pages. And then the reader can go many many pages without finding any poems quoted (in fact, he went so long I wondered if the Crane estate had forbidden him to quote the poetry except for the most specific circumstances--like the Eliot estate did for so long).
As one might expect, Unterecker dwells on the dissipation and insanity of the last few years, of the sex and drunkenness that came to define Crane for so long. That finally destroyed him.
But along the way, explanatory nuggets happen and moments in some of the important poems become clearer, even if lots of puzzles are left behind. That made the work of reading this worthwhile.
June 25, 2025
3.5 stars.
Hart! Get away from your mother! Don’t rely on your father! Keep a job!
700 and something pages. I knew I had to sped red (a Cheech and Chong reference?) this book. In other words I had to not close read if I was going to finish this within a reasonable time. None of my usual double, triple, quadruple reading. But despite all this the book was quite readable, partly because of Hart’s interesting life. Yes, a good writing job to keep up the interest over a long book.
I did find Hart a bit annoying with his over erudition. Can’t intelligent things be expressed simply?
Hart! Get away from your mother! Don’t rely on your father! Keep a job!
700 and something pages. I knew I had to sped red (a Cheech and Chong reference?) this book. In other words I had to not close read if I was going to finish this within a reasonable time. None of my usual double, triple, quadruple reading. But despite all this the book was quite readable, partly because of Hart’s interesting life. Yes, a good writing job to keep up the interest over a long book.
I did find Hart a bit annoying with his over erudition. Can’t intelligent things be expressed simply?
November 21, 2015
Fascinating look at the American literary scene of the 1920s. Tragic, sad ending of an enigmatic figure. Read it years ago, I need to re-read it.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews