Editing Harry Crosby (section)

=== Life as expatriates ===
Both of them were attracted to the [[Bohemianism|bohemian]] lifestyle of the artists gathering in [[Montparnasse]]. Even by the wild standards of Paris in the 1920s, Crosby was in a league of his own. The couple lived a [[hedonist]]ic and decadent life, including an open marriage<ref name=brunner/> and numerous affairs.<ref name="allis">{{cite news|url=http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/02/22/black_sun_rises_again/|title=Black Sun rises again|last=Allis|first=Sam|date=February 22, 2009|access-date=16 March 2010|work=The Boston Globe|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090304153205/http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2009/02/22/black_sun_rises_again/|archive-date=4 March 2009}}</ref><ref name=britannica>{{Cite web|url = http://www.britannica.com/bps/additionalcontent/18/31195285/The-Cramoisy-Queen-A-Life-of-Caresse-Crosby|title=The Cramoisy Queen: A Life of Caresse Crosby|year=2008 |first=Paul|last= Schlueter|access-date=January 11, 2010}}</ref> They drank "oceans of champagne"<ref name=allis/> and used opium, cocaine, and hashish.<ref name="wolff"/><ref name="allis"/> They wrote a mutual suicide pact and carried cremation instructions with them.<ref name="Conover"/>

Polly and Crosby purchased their first race horse in June 1924, and then two more in April 1925.<ref name=wolff/> At the end of 1924, Crosby persuaded Polly to formally change her first name to Caresse, as he felt Polly was too prim and proper for his wife. They briefly considered Clytoris before deciding on Caresse. Crosby suggesting that her new name "begin with a C to go with Crosby and it must form a cross with mine." The two names intersected at right angles at the common "R," "the Crosby cross."<ref name=mjacobs>{{cite web|last=Jacobs|first=Michael|title=Genealogy Data Page 30|url=http://jacobsfamilytree.com/family_tree/n_1d.html|year=2008|access-date=19 October 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120425081121/http://jacobsfamilytree.com/family_tree/n_1d.html|archive-date=25 April 2012}}</ref>

In 1924, they rented an apartment in the Faubourg St. Germain for six months from Princess [[Marthe Bibesco]], a friend of Crosby's cousin [[Walter Van Rensselaer Berry|Walter Berry]], for 50,000 francs (the equivalent of $2,200, about ${{formatnum:{{inflation|US|2200|1924}}}} in modern dollars). When they moved in, they brought with them "two maids and a cook, a governess, and a chauffeur."<ref name=wolff/>{{rp|145}}

His inheritance, multiplied by the favorable exchange rate the American dollar enjoyed in postwar Europe, allowed them to indulge in an extravagant expatriate lifestyle. Crosby's trust fund provided them with US$12,000 per year<ref name=fisher>{{Cite book|last=Fisher|first=Clive|title=Hart Crane: a Life|publisher=Yale University Press|year=2002|isbn=0300090617|url=https://archive.org/details/hartcranelife0000fish_s2p9|url-access=registration|page=[https://archive.org/details/hartcranelife0000fish_s2p9/page/397 397]}}</ref> (or ${{formatnum:{{inflation|US|12000|1929}}}} in modern dollars). Still, Crosby repeatedly overdrew his account at State Street Trust in Boston and at Morgan, Harjes, in Paris.

During 1929, Crosby wired his father, an investment banker, several times asking him to put more money from his inheritance into his account. In January, he asked his father to sell $4,000 worth (or ${{formatnum:{{inflation|US|4000|1929}}}} modern value) "to make up for past extravagances in New York" In May, he noted in his diary that he had sold another $4,000 worth of stock "to enjoy life when you can". In mid-July, drunk on sherry cobblers,<ref name=lyle/> he sent a cable to his father, who was not pleased by it:<ref name=wolff/>
{{blockquote|PLEASE SELL $10,000 WORTH OF STOCK. WE HAVE DECIDED TO LIVE A MAD AND EXTRAVAGANT LIFE}}

His father complied, but not without rebuking his son for his spendthrift ways.<ref name=wolff/>{{rp|144}}