Beschreibung:

CROSBY, Henry ['Harry'] Grew (1898-1929) and Caresse CROSBY [ née Mary Phelps JACOB] (1892-1970)--Thomas Stearns ELIOT (1888-1965). The Waste Land . New York: Boni and Liveright, [1922]. 8° (192 x 127mm). (Occasional light spotting and marking, light dampstaining at inner margins, inner margin of p.64 adhering to rear free endpaper.) Original black cloth, lettered in gilt on the spine and upper board (spine lightly faded, edges lightly rubbed and bumped). Provenance : The Old Corner Book Store, Inc., Boston, MA (bookseller's ticket on front free endpaper)--Harry and Caresse Crosby (Harry Crosby's signature over 'Black Sun' blindstamp on front free endpaper; gilt 'Crosby Cross' armorial supralibros on both boards; gilt morocco 'Crosby Cross' bookplate on upper pastedown). FIRST EDITION IN BOOK FORM, SECOND IMPRESSION, NO. 777 OF 1,000 COPIES. HARRY AND CARESSE CROSBY'S COPY of The Waste Land . When Harry compiled a list of his favourite living poets in early 1927, it was headed by Eliot, followed by Archibald MacLeish and e.e. cummings (cf. G. Wolff Black Sun , p.181). Once the Crosbys established The Black Sun Press, they wanted to publish Eliot's translation of Saint-John Perse's Anabase (cf. lot 656 for Eliot's letter in response to the request) and Eliot later wrote prefaces for Harry's Collected Poems (Paris: 1931, cf. lots 680-681) and the Crosby Continental Editions re-issue of Charles Louis-Philippe's Bubu of Montparnasse (Paris: 1932). Gallup Eliot (1969) A6b.