By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept

First published in 1945, Elizabeth Smart's *By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept* is an enigmatic and nearly indescribable book, a small classic of poetic prose whose author has been compared with Anaïs Nin and Djuna Barnes. In lushly evocative language, Smart recounts her love affair with the poet George Barker with an operatic grandeur that takes in the tragedy of her passion; the suffering of Barker's wife;the children the lovers conceived. Accompanied in this addition by *The Assumption of the Rogues and Rascals*, a short novel that may be read as its sequel, *By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept* has been hailed by critics worldwide as a work of sheer genius.