The Passionate Years

Crosby, Caresse (Signed Presentation)

Published by Alvin Redman Limited, London, 1955

About this Item

A very good copy in textured black paper-covered boards stamped brightly in gilt on the spine. Clean and tight throughout with numerous black and white photographic illustrations. In a defective dust jacket with the price of 21/-net on the inside front flap. The jacket is missing very large sections at the top of the spine and the top of the rear panel. It is also .25" taller than the book itself. This copy has been inscribed in bright blue ink by Caresse on the front endpaper: "For Sally + Lew part of the "30 year Plan" we hope Roccasinibalda* June 1961 Caresse." On September 9, 1922 Crosby and Polly (Caresse) were married in the Municipal Building in New York City, and two days later they re-boarded the RMS Aquitania and moved with her children to Paris, France. There they joined the Lost Generation of expatriate Americans disillusioned by the loss of life in World War I and the moral and social values of their parents' generation.[9] Crosby continued his work at Morgan, Harjes et Cie, the Morgan familys bank in Paris.Both of them were attracted to the bohemian lifestyle of the artists gathering in Montparnasse. Even by the wild standards of Paris in the 1920s, Crosby was in a league of his own. The couple lived a hedonistic and decadent life, including an open marriage and numerous affairs. Crosby was a gambler and a womanizer; he drank "oceans of champagne" and used opium, cocaine, and hashish. They wrote a mutual suicide pact, and carried cremation instructions with them.Founders of the Black Sun Press. (Wikipedia) Note: *Rocca Sinibalda is a comune (municipality) in the Province of Rieti in the Italian region Latium, located about 50km northeast of Rome and about 15km southeast of Rieti.It is home to the Sforza Cesarini Castle, originally built in 1084 but turned into a more modern fortress in the 1530s by Baldassarre Peruzzi, commissioned by Cardinal Alessandro Cesarini. The interior has frescoes from the 17th and 18th centuries. First Edition. With "First Published by Alvin Redman 1955" on the copyright page.

Seller Inventory # 256

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Passionate Years
• Publisher: Alvin Redman Limited, London
• Publication Date: 1955
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition: 1st Edition.
• Dust Jacket Condition: Dust Jacket Included
• Seller catalogs:
  • Memoir