editions The books they published were "beautifully bound, hand set books." One of their most beautiful books was the Hindu Love Manual which they first found while on holiday in Damascus. They reprinted it in October 1928 in a release of only 20 copies. Bound in navy blue leather, the cover was stamped with gold to reflect the style of ancient Persian manuscripts. The inside pages were printed on handmade paper colored a distinctive shade of gray and decorated with a gold border. Each illustration in every copy was hand-colored. Their books were generally published in small numbers, usually less than 500 copies, sometimes as few as 10 or 20. They were "marked by clean lines, sharp typeface, and fine inks and papers." Some editions were published first as a "limited" edition, usually numbered and autographed, showcased with detailed design and costly materials, followed by a less expensive "trade" edition. Most were issued in slipcases. They published Les Liaisons Dangereuses with illustrations by Alastair. The cover was red-purple cloth with gilt lettering; it contained 14 engravings on color plates, with tissue guards, and numerous in-text illustrations. In 1929, they published Harry Crosby's volume of verse, Mad Queen, which showed the influence of Surrealism and which included withering attacks on Bostonian tradition. Apart from his obsession with the sun, his writing increasingly contained references to dissolution and suicide. He viewed death as violent, quick, and liberating. Affair and suicide On July 9, 1928, Harry met 20-year-old Josephine Noyes Rotch, ten years his junior, and began a troublesome affair with her. She had been known around Boston as "fast, a 'bad egg'...with a good deal of sex appeal." Josephine would inspire Crosby's next collection of poems which he dedicated to her, titled Transit of Venus. Josephine married Albert Smith Bigelow on June 21, 1929, but Harry and Josephine rekindled their affair within a few weeks. Unlike his wife Caresse, Josephine was quarrelsome and prone to fits of jealousy. She bombarded Harry with half incoherent cables and letters, anxious to set the date for their next tryst. Visit to United States In December 1929, the Crosbys returned to the United States for a visit and the Harvard-Yale football game. Harry and Josephine went to Detroit and checked into the expensive ($12 a day) Book-Cadillac Hotel as Mr. and Mrs. Harry Crane. For four days they took meals in their room, smoked opium, and