Hart Crane (1899-1932) was an American poet in the mystical tradition who attempted, through the visionary affirmations of his richly imagistic, metaphysically intense poetry, to counter the naturalistic despair of the 1920s.

Hart Crane was born on July 21, 1899, in Garrettsville, Ohio, the son of the successful Cleveland manufacture of "Crane's Chocolates," and was raised in Cleveland. He violently repudiated the business values of his father and attached himself to his more cultivated mother. Crane's life was permeated with severe psychic disturbances perhaps originating in this nearly classic Oedipal situation; he eventually became an avowed homosexual and a severe alcoholic.

Apprentice Poet

In 1916 Crane went to New York, where he held odd jobs to support himself while writing poetry. Later he worked in several midwestern cities before returning to New York in the early 1920s to align himself with the literary avant-grade. Immersing himself in the study of his...