Like many other American writers of the twenties Hart Crane visited France. Crane's stay, which lasted from early January to mid-July 1929, was briefer than most. The poet had hoped that France would be a place where he could work on his epic The Bridge (1930), free from interruptions by family and friends. Having published one book of poems, White Buildings , in 1926 as well as numerous poems in little magazines, Crane was anxious to finish what he considered to be his most important work and the one on which his reputation would be made.

Crane was born "with his little toe in the last century," as he put it, on 21 July 1899 in Garrettsville, Ohio. His parents' married life was one of considerable strain, which was reflected in their relations with their only son. In December 1916, when his parents were filing for a divorce, Crane moved to New York to begin...