Hart Crane is born in Garrettsville, Ohio - July 21

July 21, 1899

Poet Hart Crane is born on this day in 1899.
The son of a candy manufacturer, Crane grew up in an unhappy household. His parents fought bitterly and divorced. Crane began to write poetry in his teens and went to New York City in 1917 to develop his writing. He published poems in small magazines but was unable to support himself. He returned to Ohio and worked in Cleveland for four years while trying, not very successfully, to write in his free time.
He gave up working in 1923 and headed back to New York. His parents and his patron, banker Otto Kahn, supported him while he devoted himself entirely to poetry. His first book, White Buildings, was published in 1926. His book-length poem The Bridge was published in 1930. Crane won a Guggenheim and traveled to Mexico, where he continued to write verse.
While Crane's poetry was popular, he still struggled to support himself. He also fought personal demons, including difficult relationships with his parents and excessive drinking. At age 33, while returning from Mexico to the United States by ship, he jumped overboard and drowned in the Caribbean.