On "Tattoo"

["Tatto" has a complex origin. It was originally one of a series of entries in a commonplace book that Crosby arranged as "Shadow of the Sun" around the summer or fall of 1927. When he decided to reshape these into passages that more closely resembled diary entries, he set aside a few pieces that seemed unpromising as diary material – such as entry number 17 on page 5 of the typescript of "Shadow of the Sun." This was retranscribed as a separate text and included among the pieces assembled for the volume entitled Torchbearer and published posthumously in 1931. (The changes indicated on the typescript were not brought over into the book publication.) That this text would undergo several changes, and survive in a variety of different contexts – for each typescript illustrated here there is also a longhand version – reveals a Harry Crosby who was quite different from the spontaneous figure he took pains to present himself as being.]