Harry and Caresse Crosby, originally from Boston and New York respectively, founded the Black Sun Press (at first called Éditions Narcisse) in Paris, France, in 1927. After Harry Crosby's death in 1929 in an apparent suicide pact with his lover, Josephine Noyes Rotch, Caresse Crosby continued to run the Press in Paris until 1936. She then returned to America, where the Press officially remained in operation until her death in 1970, though few books were produced after 1952. The Crosbys were closely associated with, and published works by, several of the American expatriate authors living in Paris in the 1920s and 1930s, including Ernest Hemmingway, Hart Crane, and Archibald MacLeish.

Special Collections has the following items printed at or published by the Black Sun Press:

• Levy, Julien. Surrealism. New York: 1936. BH301.S75 L4 1936

Special Collections has the following secondary resources relating to the Black Sun Press:

• Minkoff, George. A Bibliography of the Black Sun Press. Great Neck: Alan Wofsy Fine Arts, 1970. Z232.B622 M54
• Morris Library. The Black Sun Press. Carbondale: Friends of Morris Library, Southern Illinois University, 1977. Z232.B622 M67 1977