Ladders to the Sun: Poems of Harry Crosby with Extracts from His Diaries

'Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far they can go.' - T.S. Eliot in his preface to Harry Crosby's collection of poems Transit of Venus . Harry Crosby has been put forward as the embodiment of 'The Lost Generation' of American writers who travelled to Europe in the 1920s and appeared to question the American way of life. His poetry stemmed from his love of European poets such as Rimbaud, Baudelaire, Mallarmé and Lautreamont and has more to do with symbolism, surrealism and futurism than more traditional forms of poetry. A complicated and passionate poet he deserves to be read. It may only be the tragic circumstances of his death, a doomed love and a presumed double suicide, that may have stopped Crosby becoming a major literary figure. This second edition of Harry Crosby's poetry now includes more poems and also extracts from his diaries from 1922 to his untimely death in 1929.