Hart Crane

Ernest J. Smith (Independent Scholar - North America)

Ed. by Emory Elliott, University of California, Riverside
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 21 Jul 1899
Died 27 Apr 1932
Activity 1917-1932

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Cultural Identities

LGBTQ

Activities

Primary

Letter-writer/ Diarist
Poet

Resources

Crane's Works

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Hart Crane is among the most radically inventive of High Modernist poets, experimenting with language and poetic scale in ways that extended the scope of Modernism and influenced several generations of American poets who followed him. Born in Garrettsville, Ohio in 1899, the only child of the successful businessman C.A. Crane and the flamboyant, expressive, and at times dominating Grace Hart, Crane endured what he described in letters as a difficult childhood. The marriage of C.A. and Grace was not a happy one, and young Harold would break with his father and choose his middle name, also his mother’s maiden name, as a symbolic gesture. While he saw his mother as more sympathetic to his artistic endeavors, his father would continue to insist that Crane would be better served to go into…

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1579 words

Citation: Smith, Ernest J.. "Hart Crane". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 21 March 2003 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1058, accessed 24 November 2024.]