Shadows of the Sun: The Diaries of Harry Crosby

H. Crosby was one of the rare "wealthy Bohemians" of the 1920's. While DH Lawrence, Joyce, Crane, Hemmingway & others were stuggling to get by in post war Paris, Crosby was at the Ritz sipping gin cocktails, reading Rimbaud, Baudelaire, & Oscar Wilde. His diary, and life reads like an extravagant surrealist paean to the Sun, to Gold, Absinthe, and Art. After almost being killed as an ambulance driver in WW I, Crosby dedicated himself to following his real passions - namely for women, horse racing, drinking, and poetry. He & his wife (see "The Passionate Years" by Caresse Crosby) formed Black Sun Press, and helped establish the above named struggling writers, as well as others. SOS is an intriguing journey into the "mad and extravagant life" of a lesser known, eccentric poet from a lost era, and is an essential work for anyone interested in WW I era writers. I also highly recommend "Black Sun" by G. Wolff, which is a good biography on Harry Crosby and his times. And also, "Devour the Fire", by Sy Kahn, if you can find it, is a rare collection of his poetry.

"Shadows of the Sun" is an extraordinary document from an extraordinary individual. While 1920s Paris conjures up all the usual heroes and cliches, this captivating & unique document offers something altogether different - a wild burst of mystical, poetic euphoria, the fevered voice of a true original. For anyone interested in the literary foundations of Modernism or in that much written about era of literary explosion, Harry Crosby's "Shadows of the Sun" should be required reading.