by Anne Conover
In February 1950, she registered in the name of “Women vs. War” to lobby Congress to support a Peace Bond Bill, to replace the war bonds issued for fund-raising in World War II. She asked Katherine Price Collier St. George—a first cousin of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, from Crosby’s native state of New York (27th district, an outspoken advocate of equal rights for women and the first woman to serve on the powerful House Rules committee—to introduce the bill. It was defeated in the male-dominated powerful Ways and Means committee, even before it went up to vote.
In the spring of the same year, she launched the first Women’s Party in the District of Columbia. “Our children need us, you say—but out of a woman’s active life, not more than one-fifth is given over to the bearing and care of children . . . even in child-bearing years, “woman can still participate in government by her vote, study in preparation for a political career if she plans her life,” she wrote. Caresse would be pleased to know that some 60 years later, what was then the exception is now the norm in business and political life.
Caresse ended her life as dramatically as she had lived it in a fairy-tale castle in Rieti province, Italy, a symbolic rallying point for Women of the World, an organization she created for world peace, a Center for Creative Arts and Humanist Living. Henry Miller commented from California: “Women will soon rule the world—after man has destroyed it.”
If it appears in this time of international strife that her efforts were in vain, Caresse could foresee a more optimistic future: “. . . whether or not we are successful in our generation . . . at least we will have lighted the lamp by which future generations will be able to see.”
Anne Conover
Washington, D.C., 2018
Bibliography
The Caresse Crosby Collection in the Morris Library, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale (SIU 140) has the largest body of material relating to both Crosbys (72 boxes, 172 freestanding volumes, and seven packages). It includes the personal correspondence and assorted memorabilia, the Crosbys’ efforts at poetry and prose, plus a large collection of prints, drawings, and photographs, as noted, “generally in excellent condition despite several trans-Atlantic crossings, storage in an Italian castle, and numerous exhibitions.” In addition, the Caresse Crosby Collection includes a preliminary draft of an unpublished sequel to the autobiography, the correspondence, and press releases relating to Crosby’s role as political activist from 1948 to her death in 1970.
Primary Sources:
Poetry by Caresse Crosby:
Crosses of Gold (Paris, Albert Messein, 1925).
Graven Images (Boston, Houghton Mifflin, 1926).
Painted Shores (Paris, Editions Narcisse, 1927).
Impossible Melodies (Paris, Editions Narcisse, 1928).
Poems for Harry Crosby (Paris, Black Sun Press, 1931).
Portfolio:
P-I (Washington, Black Sun Press, August 1945).
P-II (Paris, Black Sun Press, December 1945).
P-III (Washington, Black Sun Press, Spring 1946).
P-IV (Rome, Black Sun Press, 1946).
P-V (Paris, Black Sun Press, Spring 1947).
P-VI (Washington, Black Sun Press, Spring 1948).
Other primary sources, with their abbreviations:
PYCrosby, Caresse. The Passionate Years. New York: Dial, 1953, reprint ed., Ecco Press, 1979.
WIW Crosby, Caresse. Who in the World? (unpublished sequel to PY), SIU 140/5–1.
HC/SOS Crosby, Harry. Shadows of the Sun. Paris, Black Sun Press, 1928.
PPD Drysdale, Polleen Peabody, unpublished memoir. (Collection of the author).
BBSP Minkoff, George Robert. A Bibliography of the Black Sun Press, with an introduction by Caresse Crosby, “How It Began.” Great Neck, NY: printed by Minkoff, 1970.
AYC Snyder, Robert, ed. Always Yes! Caresse, narration to documentary film of CC at Roccasinibalda. Pacific Palisades, CA: Masters and Masterworks, 1963.
Also of primary importance, a biography:
BS Wolff, Geoffrey, Black Sun: The Brief Transit and Violent Eclipse of Harry Crosby. New York: Random House, 1976.
Other library resources:
UConn University of Connecticut, Storrs (correspondence of Charles Olson with CC).
YaleU Beinecke Library, Yale University, New Haven, Conn. (correspondence of Ezra Pound with CC).
NYPL Berg Collection, New York Public Library.
BU John Hay Library, Brown University (Harris Collection). (Catalog of the Black Sun Press, ed. Millicent Bell).
Secondary Sources:
Abraham, Richard. Alexander Kerensky: First Love of the Revolution. New York: Columbia University Press, 1987.
Arlen, Michael J. The Green Hat. New York: Doran, 1924.
Beach, Sylvia. Shakespeare and Company. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World, 1959.
Benstock, Shari. Women of the Left Bank: Paris, 1900–1940. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986.
Boyle, Kay. My Next Bride. New York: Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1934.
Breton, André. Mad Love, tr, Mary Ann Caws. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press, 1987.
Carpenter, Humphrey. Geniuses Together: American Writers in Paris in the 1920s. London: Faber and Faber, 1988.
______ .A Serious Character: The Life of Ezra Pound. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1988.
Chisholm, Anne. Nancy Cunard. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1979.
Cowley, Malcolm. Exiles Return. New York: Viking, 1956.
______. A Second Flowering: Works and Days of the Lost Generation. New York: Viking, 1973.
______. Think Back On Us: A Contemporary Chronicle of the 1930s.Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1967.
Crane, Hart. The Bridge, A Poem. (limited ed.) Paris: Black Sun Press, 1930.
Davis, Garry. My Country Is the World. Washington, D.C.: published by the author, 1961.
Donnelly, Honoria Murphy, with Richard N. Billings. Sara and Gerald: Villa America and After. New York: Times Books, 1982.
Durrell, Lawrence. Bitter Lemons. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1959.
Fitch, Noel Riley. Sylvia Beach and the Lost Generation: A Literary History of Paris in the Twenties and Thirties. New York: W.W. Norton, 1983.
Ford, Hugh, ed. Published in Paris: American and British Writers, Printers, and Publishers in Paris, 1920–1939. New York: Macmillan, 1975.
______. Four Lives in Paris. San Francisco: North Point Press, 1987. (Kay Boyle, pp. 137–225).
Givner, Joan. Katharine Anne Porter: A Life. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982.
Hardwick, Elizabeth. Seduction and Betrayal. New York: Random House, 1974.
Hill, Martha, and John L. Brown. Irene Rice Pereira’s Library: A Metaphysical Journey. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1988.
Kahn, Sy M. Devour the Fire: Selected Poems of Harry Crosby. Berkeley, CA: Two Windows Press, 1983.
Kenner, Hugh. Bucky. New York: William Morrow, 1973.
Kert, Bernice, The Hemingway Women. New York: W.W. Norton, 1983.
King, J.C. and R.G. Manifesto for Individual Secession Into a World Community. Paris: Black Sun Press, 1948.
Kromer, Tom. Waiting for Nothing and Other Writings, ed. by Arthur D. Casciato and James L. West II. Augusta, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1986.
Longstreet, Stephen. We All Went to Paris: Americans In the City of Light, 1776–1971. New York: Macmillan, 1972.
Luke, Sir Harry. Cyprus: A Portrait and Appreciation. 2nd rev. ed. London: George G. Harrap, 1964.
McAlmon, Robert. Being Geniuses Together, 1920–1930. Rev. ed., with supplementary chapters by Kay Boyle. New York: Doubleday, 1968.
McMillan, Dougald. Transition: The History of a Literary Era. New York: George Braziller, 1976.
Mellow, James R. Charmed Circle: Gertrude Stei
n and Company. New York: Avon Books, 1974.
Miller, Henry. The Airconditioned Nightmare. New York: New Directions, 1970.
Moore, Harry T. The Priest of Love: A Life of D.H. Lawrence. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1974.
Nin, Anaïs. The Diary of Anaïs Nin, ed. with an introduction by Gunther Stuhlmann. [Vol. I (1931–34); Vol. II (1934–39), Vol.III, 1939–1944); Vol. VI (1955–66).] New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich.
Olson, Charles. The Maximus Poems, ed. by George F. Butterick. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1983.
Putnam, Samuel. Paris Was Our Mistress: Memoirs of a Lost and Found Generation. New York: Viking, 1947.
Rogers, W.G. Ladies Bountiful: A Colorful Gallery of Patrons of the Arts. New York: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1968.
Secrest, Meryle. Salvador Dali, A Biography. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1986.
Shinkman, Elizabeth Benn, ed. So Little Disillusion: An American Correspondent in Paris and London. Washington, D.C.: EPM, 1983.
Snyder, Robert, ed. Buckminster Fuller: Autobiographical Mono-logue/Scenario. New York: St. Martin’s, 1980.
Spanier, Sandra W. Kay Boyle: Artist and Activist. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois University Press, 1986.
Stephens, Robert. Cyprus: A Place of Arms. New York: Praeger, 1966.
Tompkins, Calvin. Living Well Is the Best Revenge. New York: Viking, 1971.
Tytell, John. Ezra Pound: The Solitary Volcano. New York: Doubleday, 1987.
Unterecker, John. Voyager: A Life of Hart Crane. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1969.
Weld, Jacqueline Bograd. Peggy, the Wayward Guggenheim. New York: E.P. Dutton, 1986.
Wescott, Glenway. Goodbye, Wisconsin. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1928.
Wilson, Edmund. The Twenties, with an introduction by Leon Edel. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1975.
Wiser, William. The Crazy Years: Paris in the Twenties. New York: Atheneum, 1983.
Zorina, Vera. Zorina. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1986.
Journals, Magazines, and Newspapers
Bell, Millicent, ed. Black Sun Press, I927–Present, a catalog. Providence, R.I.: Brown University, 1961.
Boyle, Kay. “The Crosbys: An Afterword.” ICarbS*, Vol. III, No.2 (Spring Summer 1977).
Black Sun Press, a catalog prepared by Shelley Cox. Carbondale, IL: Friends of the Morris Library, Southern Illinois University. Supplement to ICarbS, Vol. III, No. 2.
Cronologica Storica del Castello e Feudo di Roccasinibalda. Introduzione per il Visitatore. Rieti, Italy, 1983.
Cohen, Jean Lawlor. “The Old Guard: Washington Artists in the 1940s.” Museum and Arts. Washington, May–June 1988.
“Dali Reapproached.” In “Talk of the Town,” The New Yorker. 1963.
Germain, Edward B. “Harry Crosby, His Death, His Diaries.” ICarbS*, Vol. III, No. 2.
“Gotham Book Mart.” Introduction by Kathleen Morgan in Special Issue of Journal of Modern Literature, Vol. IV, No. 4. Philadelphia: Temple University, April 1975.
Gualdi, Luigi (Ispettore Onorario dei Monumenti). II Castello di Roccasinibalda. Rome, Italy: no date.
Hill, Martha, and John L. Brown. Irene Rice Pereira’s Library: A Metaphysical Journey. Washington, D.C.: National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1988.
Kahn, Sy M. “Hart Crane and Harry Crosby: A Transit of Poets.” Journal of Modem Literature, Vol. I. Philadelphia: Temple University, 1970.
Leeds, William. “Profile of Caresse Crosby.” Paris, France: UWS, 1931.
“Life Calls on Salvador Dali.” Life magazine, April 7, 1941.
Moore, Harry T. “The Later Caresse Crosby: Her Answer Remained ‘Yes!’” D.C. Magazines: A Literary Retrospective, ed. Richard Peabody. Washington, D.C.: Paycock Press, 1982.
Rouse, William. “Hampton Manor.” Virginia Gazette (Richmond), April 1941.
Stuhlmann, Gunther, ed. “Years of Friendship: Correspondence With Caresse Crosby, 1941–1970.” Anaïs Nin: An International Journal, Vol. II, 1984.
*National Union Catalog symbol for the Morris Library, SIU.
IMAGE GALLERY
Caresse in the Twenties with her friend and companion,
Narcesse Noir.
Caresse with Harry in Lebanon in 1927.
Hart Crane, lifelong friend of Caresse. His last letter, before he took his life, was written to Caresse.
Salvador Dali at Caresse’s estate in Hampton, Virginia.
Hampton Manor estate in Virginia.
Caresse with Professor Piccionis at Delphi, projected site of the World Man Center.
Caresse with Ezra Pound.
Caresse’s world-citizen passport.
Caresse Crosby at Le Moulin de Soleil.
(© Southern Illinois University Carbondale Digital Collection)
Caresse Crosby aboard the SS Champlain.
(© Southern Illinois University Carbondale Digital Collection)
Caresse Crosby at Singing Beach in Manchester.
(© Southern Illinois University Carbondale Digital Collection)
Caresse Crosby napping in the sun at Le Moulin de Soleil.
(© Southern Illinois University Carbondale Digital Collection)
The Black Sun Press in Paris.
(© Southern Illinois University Carbondale Digital Collection)
Painting of Caresse Crosby by Frans de Geetere.
(© Southern Illinois University Carbondale Digital Collection)
NOTES
Prologue
3 “a pollen carrier”: Nin, Diary III, p. 39.
4 “Caresse Crosby a l’invente le soutien-gorge”: PY, p. 294.
5 “chargée d’affaires of the heart of the world”: Nin, Diary VI, p. 144.
Chapter I: The Passionate Years
(All quotations not attributed to other sources in this chapter are from PY.)
7 [Richard Peabody] drinking himself to oblivion: PY, p. 91–92; see also Eleanor Early, Boston Globe, SIU 140/62–6.
8 “a love affair should be as delicate and as swift as a modern pursuit plane”: HC, “Aerodynamics of Flight,” Aphrodite in Flight (Paris: Black Sun Press, 1930).
8 “metamorphose from boy into man”: HC to Henrietta Crosby (Nov. 22, 1917), SIU 140/46–10.
8 “Most people die of a sort of creeping common sense”: HC/SOS, SIU 140/40–1 (quoted from Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, p. 385).
8 BUNNY CAN’T STAND ANOTHER DAY . . . : HC to CC (Aug. 30, 1922), SIU 140/42–10.
9 escapists from Puritan backgrounds: see Putnam, Paris Was Our Mistress; Cowley, Exile’s Return.
10 Les Desenchantés . . . “Am I?”: HC/SOS (Sept. 21, 1922), SIU 140/40–1.
10 “blessed and burdened by eccentric, wildly self-indulgent parents”: PPD memoir, pp. 1–3.
11 “Good for the breasts”: PY, p. 116; see Rogers, Ladies Bountiful, p. 6.
11 “Over the top with Polly!!”: HC, loose pages from a diary, SIU 140/41–2; see Wolff, BS, p. 77.
13 “very comfortable, but not grand or grandiose”: Wolff, interview with MacLeish, quoted in BS, p. 146.
13 “Upstairs, Downstairs” way of life: see PPD memoir, pp. 12–19.
13 one might meet André Gide: Wolff interview with Gerard Lymington, BS, p. 166.
13 “Paris is a bitch”: McAlmon, Being Geniuses Together, p. 125.
14 “I assume that the idea of your writing poetry as a life’s work is a joke . . .” : HC/SOS (Aug. 27, 1924), SIU 140/40–1.
14 “Perhaps it is: we intend . . .”: HC to Stephen Crosby, SIU 140/44–3.
14 “You must choose the art . . .”: Proust to Walter Berry, quoted in PY, pp. 117–18.
15 “I’m so glad you chucked the Bank!”: Berry to HC (Nov. 25, 19
23), SIU 140/32–4.
15 “Uncle Jack is as unstimulating . . .”: HC to Henrietta Crosby (Oct. 19, 1927), SIU 140/46–10.
15 to “put aside daily hours for work . . “: HC/SOS (Apr. 19, 1925), SIU 140/40–1.
16 “square, like a cube of Domino sugar”: CC, “How It Began,” introduction to Bibliography of BSP (Minkoff), p. ii.
16 “You and me at Êtretat . . .”: HC to CC (1928), see Wolff, BS, photo facing p. 81.
16 “Mary . . . looking very pretty and younger than ever. Everyone adores her . . . I most of all”: HC to Henrietta Crosby (Dec. 20, 1924), SIU 140/46–10.
16 “The next week we spent composing sonnets . . .”: CC, “How It Began,” p. ii.
Chapter II: Black Sun Press
(All quotations not attributed to other sources in this chapter are from PY.)
20 “It’s like undressing in public”: Mrs. Elizabeth Beal, p. 145.
20 “One Way Like the Path of a Star”: CC, Crosses of Gold.
20 . . . a book that shows none of the pretentious gravity of the minor poet: Poetry (London, Sept. 1926), SIU 140/2–3.
20 “I shouldn’t change a word . . .”: Walter Berry, p. 222.
21 “I’ve never seen the distaste . . .”: see Ford, Published in Paris, p. 183.
21 For you remember that the voyage . . .: CC, Painted Shores.
21 “I am very touched by your kind thought . . .”: Antoine Bourdelle to CC [tr. From the French] (Jan. 7, 1925), SIU 140/34–4.
22 Everything you write has . . .: Boyle to CC (Apr. 11, 1930), SIU 140/33–6.
22 “madder than hatters . . .”: Boyle, “The Crosbys: An Afterword,” 1CarbS, III, 2, p. 119.
22 That very early morning . . .: Ibid.
23 “It was a litmus paper of his life, past and present”: Ford, Published in Paris, p. 173.
23 . . . more of a means of blacking out . . .: Boyle, “The Crosbys: An Afterword,” p. 123.