Available Copies from Independent Booksellers
Crane, Hart. White Buildings.; Foreword by Allen Tate. Horace Liveright, New York, 1926.
Price: US$10000.00 + shipping
Description: Crane's first book, one of 250 copies printed in September 1929. Cloth backed batik paper boards, very good in defective dust jacket. Although Albert Boni had sold his interest in the firm to Horace Liveright in 1919, the publisher's name remained "Boni & Liveright" until 1928, when it was changed to "Horace Liveright, Inc." 8vo. Blue cloth backstrip over batik paper boards, gilt-lettered spine. Very good in defective dust jacket. Inscribed -- a quote from "The River" section of "Powhatan's Daughter," this book is inscribed to Margaret Babcock Robson, who was a close friend of the Cowleys, and one of the most helpful of Crane's friends: She had typed large portions of "The Bridge. " The phrase was first published in "The Second American Caravan," in 1928. [Schwartz & Schweik A 1.2].
Seller: Thomas A. Goldwasser Rare Books (ABAA), CHESTER, CT, U.S.A.
CRANE, Hart. White Buildings. Boni and Liveright, New York, 1926.
Price: US$20000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First edition, corrected state with the corrected title page spelling "Allen," rather than "Allan" tipped in. Foreword by Allen Tate. The entire first printing consisted of 500 copies, 50 of which were sent out to reviewers before the mistake was caught. The title page was quickly reset and the revised pages tipped in by hand in the 450 remaining copies. Faint bend in the text block, edgewear on the fragile boards, very good in very good or a little better dustwrapper with one fold strengthened on the verso. Housed in a cloth chemise and quarter morocco slipcase titled in gilt. Inscribed by Hart Crane: "For John Wolcott In Memoriam the Cleveland days 'Where cuckoos clucked to finches' Hart Crane." The line "Where cuckoos clucked to finches" appears in the penultimate stanza of the second part (of three) in Crane's poem *For The Marriage of Faustus and Helen*, considered by critics to be one of his greatest poems and which appears on pages 37-44 of this volume of poetry. The line apparently suggests the animated conversations taking place at a frenzied jazz club. Crane grew up in Cleveland, Ohio in the north tower of his family's large home at 1709 East 115th Street, his "sanctum de la tour." Wolcott was almost certainly one of the young friends who Crane left behind when, at the age of 17, he abandoned Cleveland for New York. A significant copy of the first book (of only two before his suicide at the age of 32) of one of the preeminent and influential modernist poets.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
Crane, Hart. White Buildings. Boni and Liveright, New York, 1926.
Price: US$22500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: 1st edition of his first book (500 printed). Contemporary signed presentation copy inscribed by Crane (in ink), "For John Wolcott in memoriam the Cleveland days âwhere cuckoos clucked to finches' Hart Crane." The quote is from Crane's poem, For the Marriage of Faustus and Helen, page 37 of this book (I found no other copy of White Buildings inscribed with a quotation). Very good in a 1st printing dustjacket, the spine faded and one fold strengthened, else very good. Rare, one of only 2 inscribed copies sold at auction in the last 40 years, the other in a defective jacket. Cancelled title page with Allan Tate's name correctly spelled, but only review copies had the uncorrected state so our copy is not a 2nd issue since it exactly replicates the book as it was for sale on the day it was published, and Crane's own copy was also in this state. The line "Where cuckoos clucked to finches" appears in the penultimate stanza of the aecond part (of 3) in Crane's poem For The Marriage of Faustus and Helen, considered by critics one of his greatest poems, which appears on pages 37-44 of this volume of poetry. "O, I have known metallic paradises Where cuckoos clucked to finches Above the deft catastrophes of drums. While titters hailed the groans of death Beneath gyrating awnings I have seen The incunabula of the divine grotesque. This music has a reassuring way." The line apparently suggests the animated conversations taking place at a frenzied jazz club. Crane grew up in Cleveland, Ohio, in the north tower of his family's large home (his father invented Lifesavers, and other candies) at 1709 East 115th Street, his "sanctum de la tour." Wolcott was almost certainly one of the childhood friends that Crane left behind when, at the age of 17, he abandoned Cleveland for New York. The first book (of only 2 before his suicide at the age of 32) and a significant copy of one of the preeminent and influential modernist poets.
Seller: Biblioctopus, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.
Price: US$24000.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First edition, second issue with Allen Tate correctly spelled on the tipped-in title page. Signed by Hart Crane and inscribed to a former owner mere months before his suicide, "To Hanna with all good wishes, from Hart Crane Mexico '32." Bound in publisher's paper-covered boards over dark blue spine cloth. Very Good with rubbing to binding and gilt lettering on spine. Pages toned, and with a small bookseller's ticket (Brentano's) to the rear pastedown. Crane has been hailed by many as the most influential poet of his generation. The poet committed suicide at age 32, and books signed by him are uncommon.
Seller: Burnside Rare Books, ABAA, Portland, OR, U.S.A.
Crane, Hart. White Buildings. Boni & Liveright, New York, 1926.
Price: US$25000.00 + shipping
Description: Second issue, with tipped-in title page spelling Allen Tate's name correctly. Inscribed to Solomon Grunberg, a bookseller and close friend of Crane: "For Solomon Grunberg | with best wishes - | Hart Crane." Solomon Grunberg is described by Crane biographer John Unterecker as Crane's most sympathetic, most casual, and most knowledgeable listener. He was among a very small circle of Crane's most intimate friends that included E. E Cummings. Very good condition, with some overall age darkening and dust soiling, the price intact. Spine lettering top and bottom faded, otherwise square and tight. The very scarce dust wrapper, which advertises Pound's Personae on the back cover, has no repairs. The front and back panels and both flaps present but chipped, the spine missing, jacket is in four separate pieces, held together presentably with Mylar wrapper. Schwartz & Schweik A 1.1.
Seller: Thomas A. Goldwasser Rare Books (ABAA), CHESTER, CT, U.S.A.
Crane, Hart. White Buildings.; Foreword by Allen Tate. Boni & Liveright, New York, 1926.
Price: US$25000.00 + shipping
Description: 8vo, cloth-backed decorative boards. Spine stamping dulled, tips somewhat rubbed, otherwise near fine in a custom quarter-morocco slipcase. First edition of Crane's first book, one of 500 copies printed, the second issue with the corrected title page spelling Allen Tate's name correctly tipped in as a cancel. A significant association copy, inscribed by Crane on the front flyleaf: "For Nathan Asch | with best wishes, | Hart Crane, | 10/31/27" and additionally signed beneath that inscription by Allen Tate. Above Crane's inscription is a small circular ink spot where his pen evidently leaked as he began to write his inscription. A novelist and storyteller - and the son of the great Yiddish writer Sholem Asch -- Nathan Asch was a fixture in the community of American expatriates in Paris, a close friend of Ernest Hemingway and, for a short but intense time, of Hart Crane. At the time of this inscription, Crane and Asch had only recently met, when they were tenants in the same Patterson, New York house belonging to Mrs. Turner, where Tate and Caroline Gordon had also resided, with the Cowleys and Josephsons nearby. It is especially noteworthy that this copy is signed by both Crane and Tate - perhaps the only such copy. A fine relic of Crane's time in Patterson, two weeks before his trip to California. [Schwartz & Schweik A 1.1].
Seller: Thomas A. Goldwasser Rare Books (ABAA), CHESTER, CT, U.S.A.
CRANE, Hart. White Buildings. Boni and Liveright, New York, 1926.
Price: US$29500.00 + shipping
Condition: Very Good
Description: First edition, second issue. Foreword by Allen Tate. Edges of the boards a little rubbed and worn, some scrapes and small stains on the front fly, very good in very good dustwrapper lacking the top ½" of the spine. In a fine custom quarter morocco clamshell case. Inscribed by Crane to his close friend, the poet Wilbur Underwood: "For Wilbur Underwood with affection always. Hart Crane. January 1927." A few pencil notes and marks in the margin, likely in the hand of Underwood. Underwood, whose archive is at the Library of Congress, published at least a half-dozen volumes of poetry and was associated with the Decadent Movement. He was a veteran of the homosexual underground scene of the period and is perhaps best known as Hart Crane's mentor and confidant. One of the best sources of information on Underwood is Clive Fisher's biography *Hart Crane: A Life*.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.
Crane, Hart. White Buildings. Boni and Liveright, New York, 1926.
Price: US$75000.00 + shipping
Condition: Fine
Description: 1st edition. The title page is a cancel, with Allen Tate's name (who wrote the Foreword) spelled correctly. One of Crane's own copies of his first book (the only one that's ever surfaced, and the only one that's likely to) with his bookplate and his ownership signature (in ink) "Hart Crane, Aug â31" (he drowned in 1932). This copy should not be confused with 1st editions that just have his bookplate for evidence of ownership, as his family (with all the integrity of hyenas) sold bookplates after his death. Fine in a beautiful dustjacket with the spine faded half a shade else fine condition, quality that parts the clouds to let the Sun shine down, and quite a rare jacket in such condition. Since the title page was canceled immediately, Crane logically opted for author's copies with his friend Tate's name spelled properly. Heavy. Singular. Best copy in the world, so far.
Seller: Biblioctopus, Los Angeles, CA, U.S.A.
CRANE, Hart. White Buildings. Boni and Liveright, New York, 1926.
Price: US$75000.00 + shipping
Condition: Near Fine
Description: First edition, second issue. Foreword by Allen Tate. Near fine in near fine dustwrapper. Hart Crane's own copy of his first book, with his later ownership Signature: "Hart Crane, Aug. '31" and his bookplate on the front pastedown. Apparently Hart Crane's mother either gave away or sold some of his bookplates shortly after his death to Crane's good friend, the bookseller Samuel Loveman, thus resulting in occasional "association copies" surfacing. However, all of the books that we have seen Signed by him (with the exception of the signed and limited edition of *The Bridge*) were from his personal library.
Seller: Between the Covers-Rare Books, Inc. ABAA, Gloucester City, NJ, U.S.A.