The Tastemaker

by Edward White

  Carl Van Vechten, c. 1960

  In the final decade or so of his life he was as busy as ever, but far less visible, spending the majority of his time hunkered down in his apartment, creating his archives and memorializing the past. He certainly had plenty to keep him occupied. When Gertrude Stein died of cancer in 1946, Van Vechten discovered in the pages of The New York Times that she had named him her literary executor. He claimed to have been stunned, but the decision made sense. Their public identities were bound together, Van Vechten twisting and looping like creeping ivy around Stein’s monumental frame, and of all her followers he was the only one who had never failed to do her bidding. The task he had been set was formidable: to get into print all of Stein’s unpublished work, and Van Vechten’s immediate reaction “was that Gertrude had bitten off more than I could easily chew.” Nevertheless, his stewardship was a triumph, and by 1958 he had managed to publish every last word of Stein’s enormous back catalog, testament to his gifts of perseverance and canniness.

  Without the prominent public profile, he was unable to promote new talent as he had so effectively done in previous decades, but old age did not dim his passion for making new discoveries. He helped Chester Himes get a publishing deal with Alfred A. Knopf, and the early novels of James Baldwin and Philip Roth thrilled him with their frank portrayals of modern life. Both Himes and Baldwin were corralled into his studio to join his gallery of the exceptional, along with a galaxy of other bright young things, Marlon Brando, Truman Capote, Norman Mailer, and Gore Vidal among them. Brando even posed in his costume from A Streetcar Named Desire, staring out at the viewer with the top buttons of his pants undone, making Stanley Kowalski one of Van Vechten’s homoerotic models. One name he never got was Marilyn Monroe, though he adored her. Aged seventy-eight, Van Vechten went to see Some Like It Hot a few days after its release in 1959 and laughed uproariously at the final scene in which the cross-dressing Jack Lemmon is sailed off into the sunset by an old man who has an eye for the boys. It was the sort of scabrous joke he had made thirty-six years earlier in The Blind Bow-Boy; he was glad to see that the younger generations were catching up.

  His own collection of radiant youths grew and grew right up until his death, but with old age and gradual infirmity his sexual escapades lessened. In his final decade the adoring youngsters in his orbit—there were writers and dancers, sailors and seminarians—thought of him as a grandfather figure: wise, generous, loving, and with a wicked sense of humor. The artist Wynn Chamberlain was one of the many young men who fell under the spell of Van Vechten’s charisma as the old man attempted to expand his cultural horizons, turning him on to Ronald Firbank, though the ballet proved a step too far. When Chamberlain, a fellow jazz devotee, visited Yale to take a look at the James Weldon Johnson Collection, he wrote Van Vechten to express his admiration. “Very few Americans have the right feeling about the culture of their country,” he said. “Most feel that CULTURE floats just out of reach somewhere in capital letters and should be talked about never, hardly ever engaged in.” Van Vechten, however, instinctively understood that the greatest aspects of contemporary American culture were not things to be passively received, but to be experienced, lived, and shared “between sensitive and creative people,” Chamberlain said.

  That, in the final analysis, was Van Vechten’s greatest achievement. Far more lasting than his output of essays, books, and photographs was the example of the life he lived; no other man or woman before him embodied the vision of modern American culture as emphatically as Carl Van Vechten. His twentieth-century urban odyssey made a virtue of racial and sexual diversity and collapsed the nineteenth-century distinctions between edifying art and facile entertainment, constantly probing the boundaries of what was considered good and bad taste. At his core he was a gifted individual in pursuit of experience and self-gratification, obeying no authority other than instinct, doing “what one is forced by nature to do.” These obsessions of Van Vechten’s, which made him so conspicuously unusual throughout his life, are now regarded as the hallmarks of a vibrant and diverse American urban culture, one that has not only reshaped a nation but profoundly affected the experiences of the entire world. When Van Vechten, aged eighty-four, passed away in his sleep, on December 21, 1964, the United States was entering a new era, in which these key concerns of his public and private lives—race, sexuality, and freedom of expression—were pushed to the very front of the national consciousness. Van Vechten would have found the heavily politicized language of the late sixties’ counterculture totally alien but would have recognized many of its causes as the outgrowth of his own rebellions, started fifty years earlier during the First World War.

  Marinoff stayed by his side valiantly until his final breath, devoted but damaged, the very definition of the long-suffering wife. The city of New York too remained true to him over half a century of turbulence and triumphs, always unveiling something tantalizing and unexpected to amuse and enchant him. But the strongest, most fulfilling relationship Van Vechten ever built was with himself. To the last he was the consummate individualist, a preening egotist fascinated by his own specialness, the extraordinary things he did, and the élan with which he did them. Eighteen months before he died The New Yorker interviewed Van Vechten for a piece in the magazine’s “Talk of the Town” section, reserved for whimsical stories about New York life. Van Vechten was a perfect fit, cast as “one of the city’s most durable boosters,” a curious, forgotten relic of modern New York’s genesis. Infirm and hard of hearing, he was “still imposing at eighty-two, even ornately so,” wearing “Italianate loafers and a dapper striped cardigan jacket” and taking his daily bourbon highball as the interview progressed. He tossed out anecdotes about his history as a mischief-maker, his dealings with the rich and famous, his brilliance as a photographer, and his central importance to black America. “I have photographed everybody from Matisse to Isamu Noguchi,” he said, before boasting, “I still get about twenty-five letters a day from Negroes.” Though the world outside was changing as quickly now as when he first arrived in New York, inside the sanctity of his own apartment Carl Van Vechten was still the only show in town.

  Notes

  ABBREVIATIONS

  Berg = The Berg Collection of English and American Literature, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations

  CCOHC = Columbia Center for Oral History Collection

  CVV = Carl Van Vechten

  FM = Fania Marinoff

  NYPL = Manuscripts and Archives Division, The New York Public Library, Astor, Lenox, and Tilden Foundations

  YCAL = Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library, Yale University

  PROLOGUE

  “I’m going to … Paris”: The Reminiscences of Carl Van Vechten (March 3, 1960), 21, CCOHC.

  “a serious menace to our civilization”: Josiah Strong, Our Country: Its Possible Future and Its Present Crisis (New York: Baker & Taylor, 1885), 128.

  “For him Manhattan … world”: Emily Clark, Innocence Abroad (1931; repr., Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1975), 138.

  On February 16 … began: CVV daybooks, February 16, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.

  “If people have … juice”: The Reminiscences of Carl Van Vechten (May 25, 1960), 355, CCOHC.

  “I can cut … me”: Ibid., 354.

  1. THE GILDED AGE: A TALE OF YESTERDAY

  In 1651 he … action: A.J.F. Van Laer, ed. and trans., Minutes of the Court of Rensselaerswyck, 1648–1652 (Albany: University of the State of New York, 1922), 149–52.

  “His Excellency and … frisk”: Gerald M. Carbone, Nathanael Greene: A Biography of the American Revolution (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), 120.

  The town boasted … Midwest: Figures cited from a collation of U.S. Census Bureau data by the State Library of Iowa, State Data Center Program, http://data.iowadatacenter.org/datatables/PlacesAll/plpopulation18502000.pdf.

  “churchy, Republican, wholesome”: William L. Shi
rer, The Start, 1904–1930, vol. 1 of 20th Century Journey: A Memoir of the Life and the Times (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1976), 171.

  “very surprised … stork”: The Reminiscences of Carl Van Vechten (March 3, 1960), 5, CCOHC.

  “My little boy’s … been”: Ada Amanda Fitch Van Vechten, diary, June 17, 1882, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.

  “tear wildly at … way”: Charles Lewis Fitch to CVV, December 22, 1889, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.

  “surrounded by great … lawn”: CVV, The Tattooed Countess: A Romantic Novel with a Happy Ending (1924; repr., Iowa City: University of Iowa Press, 1987), 33.

  In its rolling … locations: CVV, “The Folksongs of Iowa,” Sacred and Profane Memories (London: Cassell & Company, 1932), 29–30.

  Van Vechten admitted … boy: The Reminiscences of Carl Van Vechten (March 3, 1960), 45, CCOHC.

  “I hated interference … attention”: CVV, “The Tin Trunk,” Sacred and Profane Memories, 15.

  “my mother, picturing … nest”: Ibid., 8.

  “Death, up to … about it”: The Reminiscences of Carl Van Vechten (April 23, 1960), 144, CCOHC.

  “I’d begun to … not”: Ibid., 145.

  “was not civilized … beauty”: Susan Glaspell, The Road to the Temple (London: Ernest Benn, 1926), 60.

  “to be themselves … live for”: CVV, Tattooed Countess, 224.

  “It was the day … bee”: Louis Raymond Reid, “The Small Town,” Civilization in the United States: An Enquiry by Thirty Americans, ed. Harold E. Stearns (London: Jonathan Cape, 1922), 288.

  To his embarrassment … tablecloth: CVV, “Chapter Four,” unpublished juvenilia, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.

  He proudly told … autodidactic: CVV to Arthur Davison Ficke, August 19, 1937, Arthur Davison Ficke Papers, YCAL; CVV, Letters of Carl Van Vechten, ed. Bruce Kellner (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1987), 156.

  “sophisticated enough to … existed”: The Reminiscences of Carl Van Vechten (March 3, 1960), 41, CCOHC.

  In an unpublished … boys: CVV, “Chapter One,” unpublished juvenilia, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.

  “boys with imagination … suspicion”: CVV, Tattooed Countess, 109.

  “They have some practical … ‘Soap?’”: Charles Lewis Fitch to CVV, December 22, 1894, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.

  “excelled in female … stardom”: CVV, “Terpsichorean Souvenirs,” The Dance Writings of Carl Van Vechten, ed. Paul Padgette (New York: Dance Horizons, 1980), 3.

  “Imagine two hundred … soup”: “The Cherry Sisters Chestnut,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, March 15, 1893, 4.

  “as ‘homelike’ as … children”: B. F. Keith, “The Vogue of the Vaudeville,” American Vaudeville as Seen by Its Contemporaries, ed. Charles W. Stein (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984), 17.

  When the Marx Brothers … flag: John E. DiMeglio, Vaudeville U.S.A. (Bowling Green, OH: Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1973), 185.

  Van Vechten documented … men: CVV scrapbooks 4125 and 4126, Billy Rose Theatre Collection, The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts.

  As a teenager … rest: The photographs CVV took in Cedar Rapids can be found in the Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.

  2. THE COSMOPOLITAN STANDARD OF VIRTUE

  He was repulsed … sight: CVV to Ada Amanda Fitch Van Vechten, July 1892, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.

  “First in violence … none”: Lincoln Steffens, The Shame of the Cities (New York: Peter Smith, 1948), 234.

  It has been suggested … Matisse: Hilary Spurling, The Unknown Matisse: The Life of Henri Matisse: The Early Years, 1869–1908 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2001), 65.

  “until then I had … women”: CVV, “The Tin Trunk,” Sacred and Profane Memories, 18.

  “novel to most … delighted me”: Ibid.

  “you will see … conceive”: Lisa Krissoff Boehm, Popular Culture and the Enduring Myth of Chicago, 1871–1968 (New York and London: Routledge, 2004), 61.

  In the first chapter … destiny: CVV, “Chapter One,” unpublished juvenilia, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.

  His own brother … emotions: The Reminiscences of Carl Van Vechten (March 3, 1960), 40, CCOHC.

  “a frightfully stupid life”: Mahala Dutton Benedict Douglas to CVV, August 8, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.

  “quite respectable enough”: The Reminiscences of Carl Van Vechten (March 3, 1960), 40, CCOHC.

  Even thinking of females … might be: CVV, “Chapter One,” unpublished juvenilia, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.

  “high-spirited” girl … “further”: Henry Seidel Canby, The Age of Confidence (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1934), 37.

  “a brown derby hat … boots”: CVV, Tattooed Countess, 24.

  In the 1950s … himself: CVV to Peter David Marchant, April 25, 1956, Kellner, Letters of Carl Van Vechten, 260.

  “the cosmopolitan standard of virtue”: Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie (New York: Bantam Books, 1958), 1.

  “In no other city … soul”: CVV, “The Spanish Theatre,” In the Garret (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1920), 336.

  When Van Vechten was taken … do so: CVV to Ada Amanda Fitch Van Vechten, c. July 1892, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.

  “all that is gaudy … windows”: Jane Addams, The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets (New York: Macmillan Company, 1909), 27.

  “If you do not like … yours”: Lawrence W. Levine, Highbrow/Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988), 189.

  In a creative writing … great art: CVV, “Unfinished Symphony,” Miscellaneous College Themes, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.

  “came from the leading … Chicago”: Peter A. Gabauer et al., Annals of Psi Upsilon, 1833–1941 (New York: Psi Upsilon Fraternity, 1941), 215.

  “drunken ruffians … men”: George Ade, “The Fable of the Copper and the Jovial Undergrad,” The America of George Ade, ed. Jean Shepherd (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1960), 81.

  In his perfunctory … assignation: CVV diary, 1901–1902, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.

  He confessed to … acted upon: CVV diary, August 13 and August 14, 1901, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.

  Two weeks after … only ask: CVV diary, June 29, 1901, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.

  In some quiet … heart: CVV diary, December 26–31, 1902, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.

  He claimed that … mother: CVV, “Chapter One,” unpublished juvenilia, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.

  “I picked it up fast”: The Reminiscences of Carl Van Vechten (March 3, 1960), 55, CCOHC.

  In the Levee … path: Karen Abbott, Sin in the Second City; Madams, Ministers, Playboys and the Battle for America’s Soul (New York: Random House, 2007), 10–13.

  In a diary entry … morning: CVV diary, December 1, 1901, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.

  “philandering spirit”: Anna Elizabeth Snyder to CVV, undated, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.

  In the writer … Vanderpool: See Abbott, Sin in the Second City for an absorbing account of the Everleigh sisters and their club. Also Charles Washburn, Come into My Parlor: A Biography of the Aristocratic Everleigh Sisters of Chicago (New York: National Library Press, 1936).

  When asked as an old man … begin with: CVV to Bruce Kellner, September 27, 1957, Bruce Kellner Papers, YCAL.

  “one of the great memories … surpassed”: CVV, “Terpsichorean Souvenirs,” Dance Writings of Carl Van Vechten, 5.

  According to his own … party: The Reminiscences of Carl Van Vechten (March 3, 1960), 15, CCOHC.

  Shortly after joining … Sublett: In 1904 CVV wrote “The Inky Ones,” a semifictionalized account of his relationship with Desdemona Sublett and his experiences of African-American Chicago. Because of his use of various pseudonyms in the story, some writers have previously identified the story’s character, Mrs. Manchester, as a woman named Aurelia Veta Clement. However, in a manuscript of “The Inky Ones,” whic
h constitutes the fourth chapter of his autobiographical novel, now held in the Carl Van Vechten Papers at the New York Public Library, CVV wrote in the margin that Mrs. Manchester is in fact Desdemona Sublett. In a subsequent essay he wrote in 1925 titled “A Note on Breakfasts,” he also names his fraternity housekeeper as Mrs. Sublett, and the description of her resembles the sketch of Mrs. Manchester in “The Inky Ones.” In 1922 Elizabeth Lindsay Davis wrote The Story of the Illinois Federation of Colored Women’s Clubs, in which a photograph of Desdemona Sublett appears along with a description of her as “one of the pioneers in Illinois club work” and “an active member of the Civic League of Quinn Chapel.” This matches CVV’s description of Mrs. Manchester as a pious woman who worked tirelessly on behalf of Quinn Chapel.

  She was a hefty … faith: CVV, “The Inky Ones,” unpublished manuscript, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.

  Before long Van Vechten … attendance: Ibid.; CVV, Keep A-Inchin’ Along: Selected Writings of Carl Van Vechten About Black Art and Letters, ed. Bruce Kellner (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1979), 4.

  “uncultured and uneducated … clever”: Ibid., 5.

  “dusky matrons with ample bosoms”: Ibid.

  “invariably taken for a coon”: CVV, “Chapter One,” unpublished manuscript, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.

  3. THAT SHUDDER OF FASCINATION

  In a dingy … west: Larry Lorenz, “The Whitechapel Club: Defining Chicago’s Newspapermen in the 19th Century,” American Journalism 15, no. 1 (Winter 1998): 83–102.