Harry Crosby

Harry Crosby (June 4, 1898 – December 10, 1929) was an American poet and publisher regarded as a figure of the Lost Generation in American literature. He was the son of one of the richest banking families in New England, a Boston Brahmin, and the nephew of Jane Norton Grew, the wife of financier J. P. Morgan, Jr. As such, he was heir to a portion of a substantial family fortune. He was a volunteer in the American Field Service and later served in the U.S. Ambulance Corps, narrowly escaping with his life. Profoundly affected by his experience in World War I, Crosby vowed to live life on his own terms as a ''bon vivant'', and abandoned all pretense of living the expected life of a privileged Bostonian. In 1920 he met and married Caresse Crosby; their affair was the source of scandal and gossip among blue-blood Boston. He and Caresse subsequently left for Europe, where they devoted themselves to art and poetry.

The couple enjoyed a decadent lifestyle, drinking, smoking opium regularly, traveling frequently, and having an open marriage. In the late 1920s, Crosby wrote and published poetry that dwelt on solar symbolism and mysticism, and explored transgressive themes of sexual intercourse, pagan worship, sacrifice, death and suicide. He numbered among his friends some of the most famous individuals of the early 20th century, including Salvador Dalí, Ernest Hemingway, and Henri Cartier-Bresson. Caresse founded the Black Sun Press with Harry, with it being the first to publish works by several authors who became famous, including Hemingway, D. H. Lawrence, Hart Crane, James Joyce, René Crevel and Kay Boyle. Crosby died in 1929 alongside his new partner Josephine Noyes Rotch, committing a murder–suicide which was speculated as being a suicide pact. Provided by Wikipedia