Hart Crane: A Biography

by Clive Fisher

Hart Crane's life was notoriously turbulent, persistently nonconformist, and tragically short. Born in 1899, Crane became one of the most significant modernist American poets, yet his self-destructive tendencies - violent outbursts, massive drinking binges, and dangerous sexual pursuits - came to a catastrophic conclusion when at only thirty-two he threw himself from the stern of an ocean liner into the Gulf of Mexico. This new biography presents a full, frank portrait of the real Hart Crane, a poet attractive both for his flamboyance and passion for life, and for the magnificent sonorities of his work.

Genres: Biography Memoir, Biography

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2002

Reviews

[James Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

One can think of a biography as being epical, as a total definition of an artist and his work set not only in terms of his personal narrative but in those of his work in context of the poetry of his day and his influence, as well as the times in which he lived. To read such a biography is to be able to see the man standing in his time. Understanding seemingly becomes as nearly complete as possible. It becomes the definitive biography. I think that's what Clive Fisher has given us with Hart Crane: A Life.

Hart Crane was a young man without any formal schooling beyond high school, or any classical training at all, but who nevertheless wrote incredibly sophisticated poetry at the leading edge of modernism. Today he's considered one of the brightest beacons in the letters of the 1920s. His The Bridge is one of the finest long poems in the language. But his alcoholism and homosexuality and general dissipation was as much a part of him as his poetry. Eventually despair, too, and in 1932 he threw himself from the deck of the liner carrying him from Mexico to New York City.

I think it interesting that the New York circle of friends and acquaintances Crane knew and spent time with were such notables as Edna St. Vincent Millay, E. E. Cummings, Edmund Wilson, Alfred Stieglitz, John Dos Passos, and more. Yet in none of the biographies of those people I've read can I recall mention of Crane. He and Cummings, especially, were close. I wonder at the disparity. Does it speak to their influence on Crane and the negligent impact of his friendship on them? Or does it speak to the depth of Fisher's biography? He either doesn't see the imbalance as I do or he chooses not to address it. But to me it becomes one of the interesting facets in Crane's relative obscurity today. Fisher acknowledges it and thinks it a sign of the times that when the ship Crane had jumped from reached New York, the fact of his nonarrival was overshadowed by the arrival from England of 79-year-old Alice Hargreaves, who as a child had inspired Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.

Detail such as that informs Fisher's huge biography. Such detail and understanding of the man and astute critical evaluation of his poetry has allowed him to write the Crane biogrphy that will explain him for many years to come.

[R.J. Gilmour · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have spent my nights accompanying Hart Crane in Clive Fisher's biography Hart Crane: A Life (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2002). Although I am not sure that I always understand Crane's poetry, or for that matter most modern poetry (or modern dance, sometimes it makes me feel like such a philistine, try as I may, it remains lost on me) it is a pleasure to wander the streets of New York with Crane as he searches for inspiration in the arms of young sailors. As Hemingway put it..."Poor Hart Crane, always trying to pick up the wring sailor" (190).

There is something sweet, angry, frustrated and eerily similar about his life. Although well researched and informed by an understanding of Crane's poetry, and the mileu in which he lived at times it is hard to differienate all the fascinating people Fisher introduces. Fisher spends a lot of time trying to place Crane's work within the context of his life but sometimes peripheral characters remain shadowy rather than fully drawn or fleshed out. As I have settled in each night with Crane I have at my side my handy copy of Streetwise Manhattan, a pocket map in order to trace where he walks and explores, bringing New York alive each night for me.

After reading Clive Fisher's biography of Hart Crane I found myself thinking I was missing something. Fisher used Crane's poetry throughout the biography to provide context for understanding Crane's life and at times I found myself unable to see what he saw in Crane's poetry. Poetry can seem such an arcane art. It has always made me feel somehow outside of understanding. Literary types talk about poems and poetry in a manner that I usually cannot comprehend. While I understand the language of criticism when they refer to specific poems or images and metaphors being powerful and important I find myself at a loss to see what they see. Maybe poetry like art elicits a visceral reaction of understanding or incomprehension. Maybe it simply comes down to "I get it, or I don't." Indeed, there have been poems that have spoken to me, usually quite loudly and resonantly, but other poems that are said to be important in the English canon, like T.S. Elliot's The Waste Land leave me feeling cold and unresponsive. It always made me feel like such a heathen, a philistine, somehow knowing I was missing something they all shared. Maybe it comes from a lack of education in the subtleties and nuances of the medium, but I always felt like I was missing something important, maybe a poetry gene? It is nice every once and awhile to find myself nodding my head while reading poetry, finding resonance and meaning that seemingly agrees with a literary critic. While I am not one to worry about a sense of belonging with an established tradition constantly finding oneself at odds with accepted opinion, on a subject I am not well versed in, can be discouraging. At least I find myself in agreement with the Baroness's anger, frustration, language and poetry.

[Mills College Library]

Biog C8897f 2002