Crosby, Caresse (1892–1970)

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Crosby, Caresse (1892–1970)

English philanthropist and founder of the Black Sun Press. Born Mary Phelps Jacob in New York, New York, in 1892; died in Rome, Italy, in 1970; married a Peabody; married Harry Crosby (died); married a third time.

Caresse Crosby came from a "crystal chandelier background" and could claim such ancestors as Plymouth Colony governor William Bradford and Civil War general Robert Fulton. She was also related to a minister to the Court of St. James's. When she was presented at Court, King George V chased and secured her hat that had blown off in the wind during a garden party. Crosby was early drawn to the arts, and the magazine St. Nicholas purchased one of her drawings. She wrote and printed her own newspaper, using a gelatin board.

Crosby first married into the Peabody family, which led to wealth and the acquisition of J.P. Morgan as an uncle. But it was with her second husband, Harry Crosby, that she entered the creative world to which she would become inextricably bound. Harry gave her the name Caresse, and the two, both wealthy, had high times in Paris where their address was the Rue de Lille. Caresse was known to appear at tea in Paris with her dog, a whippet who sported a gold necklace and gold-lacquered toenails.

Caresse and Harry founded the Black Sun Press, which printed their own poetry, the letters of Henry James and Marcel Proust to Walter Berry (Caresse's cousin), and the work of writers D.H. Lawrence, James Joyce, Hart Crane, Ezra Pound, and Gertrude Stein ; their Crosby Continental Editions, launched in the 1930s, would introduce American writers to the French, including Kay Boyle , William Faulkner, and Ernest Hemingway. The couple purchased an old mill near Chantilly, which at one time had been Jean-Jacques Rousseau's home; they called the place "Le Moulin du Soleil" and entertained widely. Following the death of her husband, Crosby dedicated her time and finances to several causes, in particular the World Citizenship Movement, centered at Delphi. She married a third time, and her husband purchased Hampton Manor, designed by Thomas Jefferson, in America. Located near Fredericksburg, Virginia, the Manor became a refuge for some of the most creative minds in history. The sculptor David Hare, Salvador and Gali Dali , Henry Miller, and Ezra Pound were among those who stayed. Crosby helped edit Dali's memoirs and exhibited Miller's Hampton Manor watercolors in a gallery she had opened in Washington.

Known for her aristocratic nature, generosity, and ready wit, she was described by her late husband Harry in a poem as also having "wayward

eyes," "girlish loveliness," and "slender legs." Crosby, the owner of a pied-à-terre in Rome, entertained at her vast castle in the Rieti province, where her usual number of guests, 12, had at times stretched to as many as 30. (When 30 members of New York's Living Theater enjoyed her hospitality upon being stranded in her neighborhood for two months, they chopped all available wood to warm themselves from the icy mountain winds, including an occasional chair.)

Although Crosby's finances rescued many artists from difficult times, "it's not a question of being a do-gooder," she remarked. "When I helped writers and artists I benefited more than they did. I think everybody should chip in and do whatever can be done." She elaborated on her system of dispersement: "If he is a good artist and a bad fellow, he doesn't get as many meals as if he is a good artist and good fellow." The library of Southern Illinois University purchased Crosby's large collection of papers and books, prompting her comment, it was "the only time I ever made any money on one of my deals with artists and writers." She reaped even less with another deal. In November 1914, she had patented and sold a "backless brassiere," consisting of two handkerchiefs and ribbon sewn together, to Warner Brothers Corset Company of Bridgeport, Connecticut. The value of the patent was later estimated at $15 million. Crosby, now considered the first to patent a brassiere, saw none of the profit.