USA: Poetry Episode In Search of Hart Crane 

And interviewing everyone he knew only 30 years after his death. You'll never be able to make a better Crane documentary than this.

What a treasure of a documentary

I am writing a biography of sorts of Crane's friend Malcolm Cowley. This is gold to me, just pure gold, on every level

still enjoying this video endlessly. It's July 2023.

he'd go for the sound as well as the meaning, a shock treatment to a line- Fascinating.

Another reason that Cody Carvel's is the best channel on RU-vid. Thank you

This is way better than most documentaries that you see even now

Loveman is so charming and speaks of Crane with such fondness. I'm glad there are videos of him.

I believe the word they're discussing around 39:00 is 'findrinny' which comes from Irish, and means 'white bronze', usually used to decorate bracelets.

It's wonderful to have this on RU-vid. Thank you.

Great upload; Hart Crane's poetry is a gift everybody must share.

Incredible documentary. I'd read about all the people interviewed herein in the various Hart Crane biographies and also his letters. To see and hear these people is a treat I'd never expected. John Unterecker is an excellent interviewer. Thank you so much for posting. This documentary is a true gem. I found the following info about it:

Brilliant.

This is priceless footage. Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this.

Vibrant brilliancy of smeared fingertips in sips of amber wine.❤ What a documentary on Hart Crane journey of vistas!!! America's authority of poetry, glimpses of shadows emerging with sweetsness of thunderstorms. A living dance muses with music of words, sinking ships of bottomless seas. Hail!! Rythem of trance just beaming with symmetry. 🙏❤️🌎🌿🕊🎵🎶🎵

I know very little about Hart Crane, and I don't really understand his poetry, but this is an excellent documentary. All these personal recollections from the very smart, perceptive people who knew him well (especially, for me, Malcolm Cowley, whose books I've read and recommend) really bring Hart to life again.

Hart Crane is one of the finest lyric poets America has ever produced imho. The mystical tone of and in his poetry is unmistakable, and after reading the first song in "White Buildings," you know you're in the presence of originary genius. Dickinson, Whitman, Cummings, and Stevens are all wonderful; yet Hart Crane's best poems still haunt me memory and soul; their melodies contained are unlike anything else in the universe. Although personally I feel more affinity with European lyric poets, Hart Crane is the most beautiful exception.

Great film; thanks for sharing.

Finding this youtube channel is like finding a cluster of gold nuggets in your pan.

My grandfather is Orrick Johns. He met and married Peggy in Greenwich village in 1914. He met Malcolm Cowley in Grantwood New Jersey in 1915. Cowley and Peggy must have met, here, too. My grandfather writes about life with her all the way up to 1916, and then she just drops out of his book. She crops up in other sources in 1917. She told Dorothy Day in 1917 Orrick was dead. Day believed it until the end of her life. Cowley as far as I know never spoke of Orrick. I will always wonder what happened between Peggy and Orrick that she would say he was dead, a he would just have her simply disappear from his book.

This documentary was far better than most about writers/poets. Incredibly interesting. The talk with Charmion von Wiegand (painter) -- intelligent, spoke with clarity & affection for Crane. Peggy Baird was wonderful with her first-hand account & recollection. You don't always get that. Like when Anne Sexton committed suicide did anyone ever interview Maxine Kumin who was the last to see Anne earlier that same day? Were there any signs? They were having lunch together.

Entertaining and educational. Thank you Cody Carvel! 🐀

Ah, but what they knew in '62, and Untermeyer knew lots, they couldn't publish. His letters were expurgated so deeply you'd never guess how raw and funny they could be, and when they were published years ago I returned to things I thought I knew with a pleasant shock. The academy was still blushing over or apologizing for his "unnatural" vices -- a critic named Hazo called him out for his "drunkenness and perversion" -- or calling him an "obscurantist"--Blackmur attacked him, his "friend" Winters had betrayed him, and by the early Sixties who had his back except for Harold Bloom, who used four lines from "The Broken Tower" as an epigraph to The Visionary Company (which was either B's first or second book). This is still fun to watch and see his "account" books and how much he generally owed or loaned out.

The narration is as poetic as prose can be. Fitting for a documentary on Crane

I had Gorham Munson in College in New Jersey

THANK YOU!!!

Wow, Samuel Loveman saved him from a suicide attempt? Now that's a good friend.

Still enjoying this: Jan 2024.

Not that it's the most important part of this discussion, but we do hear the interviewees saying that Hart was sometimes depressed. In those days being gay was hidden and even in some places illegal. And then there is the mention of drinking. He was a sensitive artist and expected to fit in to the world he lived in. But he found some solace in reading and writing and putting his whole heart into that, for as short as his life was. God bless you and rest in peace and thank you for the brilliance and harmony that you have shared with us all. You were very brave to do your work and bring out your genius. Sorry it was so hard but it is somewhat better now in that being gay is not as needing to be hidden and folks can share more openly. Not perfect but better than it was then. Grateful to have found you and thank you Cody for sharing this. Also to anyone, there are always alternatives to suicide, if you need , seek help, life is worth living. Peace

thanks, ms tartt 🧃👩🏻

Hart Crane's father invented the Life Saver candy. Hart Crane jumped overboard into the Gulf of Mexico, shouting, "Goodbye, everybody!"

Thanks i found out he's willy wonka's kid and Jim Morrison's spirit animal

THANK YOU 🤍

Alan Tate was a mentor. He was close to Crane. I still recall him speaking of the shock he felt with the news of HC's death. This was totally unforeseen by his contemporaries. I don't feel he is much read anymore, his work is overtly 'literary" and that is out of style.

im thinking this is from 1958-61. I'd like to know when this was created. ty.

Samuel Loveman was one of the great forgers of the 20th Century. He specialized in forging Crane material.

"I think he just lost Hart", funniest shit I've ever heard

I guess Hart had a tough time of it in Mexico. The authorities threw him out of the country apparently.

1:01:49 why is Solomon Grunberg calling Hart a plagiarist?

my god look at all his ephemera 3:40

It's easier to understand Shakespeare than Hart Crane.

I think Crane spoke the American language. He spoke Americana, In the same way Bob Dylan sang it

1:21:30

45:57

xmas guffaws it's him in a big window face down in a coffin policeman Hart Crane

So lets ignore the fact that he was gay all together, except to randomly slip out that he had "sexual peculiarities" and that he was in fact "NOT a homosexual..." but simply had "neurotic compulsions;" and the fact that he'd call gay people "fag" totally proves this (rather then being proof of his own insecurities, and the the mindset of the zeitgeist")... nice. Happy to live in the 21st century. None the less, still fascinating of course. And what a writer.

Is it known if Crane actually MEANT to commit suicide? It doesn’t seem too clear, and he has no prior history.

Hart Crane was homosexual not compulsion neurosis it was he liked guys. I get beyond that and read the man. his likes dislikes his relations with friends and I told him so.