Carl Van Vechten
Personal Information
Description
Carl Van Vechten was an American writer and artistic photographer who was a patron of the Harlem Renaissance and the literary executor of Gertrude Stein. He gained fame as a writer, and notoriety as well, for his 1926 novel Nigger Heaven. In his later years, he took up photography and took many portraits of notable people. Although he was married to women for most of his adult life, Van Vechten engaged in numerous homosexual affairs over his lifetime.
Books
The letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten, 1913-1946
The Blind Bow-Boy
Story of the education of a youth whose father is determined that his son shall not suffer any of his own disadvantages.
Nigger heaven
"Here upper-class elites discuss art in well-appointed drawing rooms; rowdy and lascivious drunks spend long nights in jazz clubs and speakeasies; and politically conscious young intellectuals drink coffee and debate "the race problem" in walkup apartments. At the center of the story, two young people - a quiet, serious librarian and a volatile aspiring writer - struggle to love each other as their dreams are slowly suffocated by racism."--BOOK JACKET.
Lords of the Housetops
Caruso's mustache off
"This collection gathers a broad sampling of Carl Van Vechten's work long out of print and heretofore uncollected, including Red, [and] his own revisions of his writings about music that he wished to preserve ..."--P. of cover.
Carl Van Vechten : 'O, Write My Name'
O, Write My Name: American Portraits, Harlem Heroes, now also a traveling exhibition organized by the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture and the New York Public Library, presents us with portraits of 50 extraordinary people who participated in the great cultural movement that was the Harlem Renaissance. This collection of 50 exquisite duotone prints by the photographer, critic and novelist Carl Van Vechten is a celebration of these inimitable writers, actors, musicians, painters, athletes and intellectuals as well as an acknowledgment of their unprecedented contribution to American art and culture. Van Vechtens friendship with his subjects is reflected in the intimate nature of these portraits. With an insightful introduction by American novelist, playwright and essayist Darryl Pinckney, this book is an homage to the African American men and women from the Harlem Renaissance who continue to inspire generations.