by Edward White
“bright, crowded with … laughter”: Claude McKay, Home to Harlem (Lebanon, NH: University Press of New England, 2012), 250.
“adorable, rich, chic”: CVV to Gertrude Stein, July 24, 1926; Burns, Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten, 131.
Small’s Paradise, where … cocaine: CVV daybook, March 19, 1925, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“was surely as gay as it was black”: Henry Louis Gates, “The Black Man’s Burden,” Fear of a Queer Planet, ed. Michael Warner (Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press, 1993), 233.
The male writers … era: The cultural historian Ann Douglas poses an interesting thought experiment on the subject. “Try to imagine,” Douglas prods, “what the white 1920s generation would have been like if, like the Harlem Renaissance, its most important male ringleaders and spokesmen—say Sinclair Lewis, Mencken, Fitzgerald, and Hemingway—had been homosexual. One almost can’t do it; the differences are too immense, too complex.” Ann Douglas, Terrible Honesty: Mongrel Manhattan in the 1920s (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995), 97.
“they undressed by … Beauty”: Richard Bruce Nugent, “Smoke, Lilies and Jade,” Gay Rebel of the Harlem Renaissance, ed. Thomas Wirth (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002), 82.
It is worth noting … living: Richard Bruce Nugent to CVV, January 26, 1942, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
“Harlem was very much … closet”: Ibid., 21.
In one of his first … orgies: CVV daybook, March 10, 1925, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL. Donald Angus gave an account of the incident to Bruce Kellner: Splendid Drunken Twenties, 76.
“All around the den … busy above”: McKay, Home to Harlem, 31.
“young black entertainer … disappeared”: Chad Heap, Slumming: Sexual and Racial Encounters in American Nightlife, 1885–1940 (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2008), 259.
He was part … projected: CVV daybook, January 10, 1924, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL. CVV records that one of those movies was Strictly Union, a heterosexual picture notable to historians of the genre for featuring a high-concept story line about the arrival of trade unions in Hollywood—it was made by aspiring mainstream directors who could not get a break with any of the big studios—as well as for being the first known American film to feature graphic close-ups of various sexual acts, such as fellatio and penetration.
he badgered Arthur … behalf: Arthur Davison Ficke to CVV, October 4, 1922, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL; see also the exchange of letters between CVV and Ficke throughout 1922 on this issue, in Van Vechten and Ficke collections at YCAL.
“give a remarkable performance … etc.”: CVV daybook, September 29, 1925, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL; Kellner, Splendid Drunken Twenties, 97.
“He was extraordinary … anything”: The Reminiscences of Carl Van Vechten (May 2, 1960), 217, CCOHC.
“in great glee … as one”: Ibid., 197.
“a lovely, lovely dry Martini”: Chris Albertson, Bessie (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005), 172.
“full of shouting … sensuous too”: CVV, “Moanin’ wid a Sword in Ma Han’,” Vanity Fair (February 1926): 61.
“Get the fuck … shit”: Albertson, Bessie, 174.
It is worth noting … numbers: CVV daybook, December 4, 1928, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“really thrilling experience”: CVV to Scott Cunningham, c. January 1925; Kellner, Letters of Carl Van Vechten, 74–75.
“the unpretentious sincerity … known”: CVV, “The Folksongs of the American Negro,” Vanity Fair (July 1925): 52.
“the new American Caruso”: Martin Bauml Duberman, Paul Robeson: A Biography (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1989), 80.
To Gertrude Stein … Chaliapin: CVV to Gertrude Stein, June 30, 1925; Burns, Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten, 116.
Van Vechten, pained … than his: CVV to FM, May 8, 1925, May 27, 1925, and May 30, 1925, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
The evening after she left … dawn: CVV daybook, April 29, 1925, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“Droning a drowsy … croon”: Langston Hughes, “The Weary Blues,” The Weary Blues (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1929), 9
“who sang the blues … rock”: Langston Hughes, The Big Sea (New York: Hill and Wang, 1963), 110.
“heritage of rhythm and warmth”: Langston Hughes, “The Negro Artist and the Racial Mountain,” cited in Nathan Irving Huggins, ed., Voices of the Harlem Renaissance (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), 307.
“the low-down folks … standardizations”: Ibid., 306.
“people who have their hip … go by”: Ibid.
“I shall write … Covarrubias”: CVV to Langston Hughes, June 24, 1925, Emily Bernard, ed., Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten (New York: Vintage Books, 2002), 10–11.
“You’re my good angel … flying!”: Langston Hughes to CVV, May 18, 1925, Bernard, Remember Me to Harlem, 15.
He worried that … sex: Rampersad, The Life of Langston Hughes—Volume I: 1902–1941: I, Too, Sing America (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986), 116; Bernard, Remember Me to Harlem, 16.
“The influence, if … side”: CVV to Langston Hughes, c. April 1927, Bernard, Remember Me to Harlem, 48–49.
In his very first letter … Haiti: CVV to Langston Hughes, May 6, 1925, Bernard, Remember Me to Harlem, 4.
Soon after, he also … doing so: CVV to Langston Hughes, May 13, 1925, and Langston Hughes to CVV, May 17, 1925, Bernard, Remember Me to Harlem, 6–7, 10–11.
“Do not let any lionizers stampede you”: Rampersad, I, Too, Sing America, 119.
“a nice boy”: Wirth, Gay Rebel of the Harlem Renaissance, 226.
“beginning to sound … remain”: Duberman, Paul Robeson, 85.
“it was you who made me sing”: Paul Robeson to CVV, October 21, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
“their independence and … indecency”: Jody Blake, Le Tumulte Noir: Modernist Art and Popular Entertainment in Jazz Age Paris, 1900–1930 (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1999), 93.
“strong coffee before the cream is poured in”: CVV, “Prescription for the Negro Theatre,” Vanity Fair (October 1925): 98.
“a wild pantomimic … passion”: Ibid.
“coining money out of niggers”: Emily Bernard, Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance: A Portrait in Black and White (New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press, 2012), 119.
“voice, choking with … artist!”: CVV, “Prescription for the Negro Theatre,” 92.
“The music of the Blues … combinations”: Ibid., 44.
“Mr. Van Vechten … cheers”: James F. Wilson, Bulldaggers, Pansies, and Chocolate Babies: Performance, Race, and Sexuality in the Harlem Renaissance (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2010), 139.
He once wrote … enjoy: CVV to James Weldon Johnson, October 11, 1933, James Weldon Johnson and Grace Nail Johnson Papers, YCAL.
According to a report … otherwise: “Author Thought Tiny White Girl Was Colored/Offered to Place ‘Brown’ Lassie, He Met at Party, in Broadway Show/LEARNS OF JOKE/Writer Insists Girl Is of Black Origin—Tells Her So; Then She Yells,” Zit’s Theatrical Newspaper, April 7, 1928, CVV scrapbook 22, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
By 1927 his … population: John E. Pember, “Race Amalgamation Will Settle American Problem: An Interview with Carl Van Vechten,” Chicago Defender, March 26, 1927, CVV scrapbook 21, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
Hurston believed as fervently … relationship: Robert E. Hemenway, Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1980), 104–33.
“I have taken … to be”: Ibid., 109.
“the guard-mother … Zora”: Douglas, Terrible Honesty, 282–86.
Over two decades … islands: Zora Neale Hurston to CVV, various dates between 1925 and 1945, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
“the importance—and insignificance—of raci
al difference”: Bernard, Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance, 43.
“You are just … or not”: Harold Jackman to CVV, February 14, 1925, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
9. EXOTIC MATERIAL
“a Negro novel”: CVV to FM, October 23, 1924, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“comparatively easy for me … stop-time!”: CVV to Langston Hughes, June 4, 1925, Bernard, Remember Me to Harlem, 17.
The following month … setting: CVV to Gertrude Stein, June 30, 1925, Burns, Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten, 116.
“the nigger book”: Gertrude Stein to CVV, July 21, 1925, Burns, Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten, 119.
“Title of ‘Nigger Heaven’ comes to me today”: CVV daybook, August 14, 1925, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL; Kellner, Splendid Drunken Twenties, 93.
“found so good a title … write”: CVV to Scott Cunningham, August 16, 1925, Kellner, Letters of Carl Van Vechten, 82.
“primitive birthright … emotion”: Ibid., 89–90.
“men and women … evil rites”: Ibid., 254–55.
Grace Nail Johnson … with it: CVV daybooks, November 25, 1925, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
Walter White judged … himself: CVV daybooks, December 1, 1925, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
Countee Cullen … thing: CVV daybooks, November 27, 1925, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
Van Vechten dismissed … people: CVV daybook, November 28, 1925 Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“It had more … understand”: The Reminiscences of Carl Van Vechten (May 2, 1960), 208, CCOHC.
“is freely used … resented”: CVV, Nigger Heaven, 26.
“Your ‘Nigger Heaven’ … blacks”: Charles Duane Van Vechten to CVV, November 28, 1925, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“You are accustomed … change it”: Charles Duane Van Vechten to CVV, December 7, 1925, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
On the ninth … indulgence: CVV daybook, January 10, 1925, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
He told Hugh … again: CVV to Hugh Walpole, March 7, 1926, Hugh Walpole Collection, Berg.
“the race is getting more popular every day”: CVV to Gertrude Stein, March 4, 1926, Burns, Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten, 127.
“The squalor of Negro life … remains?”: CVV, “The Negro in Art: How Shall He Be Portrayed?,” Crisis (March 1926): 219.
“shoutin’, moanin’, yelling … jungle”: CVV daybook, May 23, 1926, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL; Kellner, Splendid Drunken Twenties, 120.
During a trip to Virginia … Harlem: CVV to FM, April 20, 1926, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“There is seldom” … race: Robert F. Worth, “Nigger Heaven and the Harlem Renaissance,” African American Review 29, no. 3 (Autumn 1995): 461.
“She says she is … for me?”: CVV daybook, June 25, 1926 Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL; Kellner, Splendid Drunken Twenties, 125.
“I was having an affair … but—”: Cecilia Garrard, “And the Famous Man Washes Dishes at Home/Wife Says Carl Van Vechten Likes to Do Them,” Brooklyn Eagle, October 4, 1925, CVV scrapbook 17, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
Early the next week … fitting: CVV daybook, June 29, 1926, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“between the covers … world”: Advertisement from Publishers Weekly, June 26, 1926, CVV scrapbook 18, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“careful observations … passion”: Walter Yust, “Novels by Van Vechten and Pio Baroja,” New York Evening Post Literary Review, August 21, 1926, CVV scrapbook 18, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“understanding and insight”: Edwin Clark, “Carl Van Vechten’s Novel of Harlem Negro Life,” New York Times Book Review, August 22, 1926, CVV scrapbook 18, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“lived among the colored … think”: “New Light on Negro Ideals and Destiny,” New York Evening Graphic, August 21, 1926, CVV scrapbook 18, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“a second-hand dish … we are”: Nathan Irving Huggins, Harlem Renaissance (Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press, 2007), 114.
“purity of race”: M. P. Shiel to CVV, c. July 1926, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
To the fashionable white crowd … hands: Sinclair Lewis to CVV, September 20, 1926, and Henry Mencken to CVV, August 4, 1926, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL; F. Scott Fitzgerald to CVV, c. 1926, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
“one of the most enthralling … Harlem”: Press advertisement, CVV scrapbook 19, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“the Race … aren’t they?”: Arthur Davison Ficke to CVV, August 8, 1926, CVV Papers, NYPL.
The Van Vechtens’ housekeeper … press: CVV daybook, September 3, 1926, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“with their noses arched … eyelids”: “Van Vechten’s Book,” Norfolk Journal & Guide, September 23, 1926, CVV scrapbook 19, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“You mean to say … nigger?”: Eden Bliss, “This Harlem,” Afro American, CVV scrapbook 19, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“We don’t care … exaggerated about”: Lewis Baer to CVV, September 28, 1926, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“somebody does something … immediately”: The Reminiscences of Carl Van Vechten (May 25, 1960), 354, CCOHC.
“The cries of protest … Paris”: Nora Holt to CVV, August 17, 1926, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
“breach of the peace … men”: Hubert Harrison, “Homo Africanus Harlemi,” Amsterdam News, September 1, 1926. Reprinted in Jeffrey B. Perry, ed., A Hubert Harrison Reader (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press, 2001), 341–44.
“It is the surface mud … sadism”: W.E.B. DuBois, “Books,” Crisis (December 1926): 81–82.
Shortly after the first bad … mob: CVV daybook, September 4, 1926, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“make a stir … sympathy”: Charles Johnson to CVV, August 10, 1926, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“colored people the rare tribute … puppets”: James Weldon Johnson, “Romance and Tragedy in Harlem—A Review,” Opportunity 4, no. 26 (October 1926): 316, 330.
With a dash of pride … criticizing it: CVV to James Weldon Johnson, September 7, 1926, James Weldon Johnson and Grace Nail Johnson Papers, YCAL.
Hubert Harrison’s review … society: L. M. Hussey, “Homo Africanus,” American Mercury (January 1925): 83–89.
“Harlem’s new and … publicity”: Harrison, “Homo Africanus Harlemi,” Perry, Hubert Harrison Reader, 83.
“the vogue for … other book”: Gwendolyn Bennett, “The Ebony Flute,” Opportunity 4, no. 26 (October 1926): 322.
“Sightseers, visitors and … around”: Gwendolyn Bennett, “The Ebony Flute,” Opportunity 4, no. 27 (November 1926): 357.
In fact, librarians … his books: Charles Chesnutt to CVV, September 7, 1926, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“Can it be possible … classes?”: Florence Thompson to CVV, April 15, 1928, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“all the other characters … fine”: Joseph Epstein to CVV, February 9, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“who go to Negro homes … equals?”: Lilian Wang to CVV, February 12, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“The things that I said … ‘Heaven’”: Walter White to W.E.B. DuBois, November 26, 1926, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“misdirected a genuine poet”: Allison Davis, “Our Negro Intellectuals,” Crisis 35 (August 1928): 268; and Hughes’s response: Langston Hughes [letter to the editor], Crisis 35 (September 1928): 302.
Claude McKay’s 1928 novel … begun: In 1924, frustrated that he could not find a publisher willing to handle his gritty depiction of black life, McKay had burned his manuscript of The Color Scheme. Wayne F. Cooper, Claude McKay: Rebel Sojourner in the Harlem Renaissance (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1996), 193–222.
“powerful … daring and even sensational”: Advertisement for Sweet Man in unidentified newspaper, CVV scrapbook 24, Carl
Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“I pay no attention … opinion”: The Reminiscences of Carl Van Vechten (May 25, 1960), 342, CCOHC.
Marinoff was desperate … infected him: FM to CVV, January 5, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
10. CRUEL SOPHISTICATION
“long, lone, uninspired Kansas … New Mexico”: CVV daybook, January 1, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL; Kellner, Splendid Drunken Twenties, 145.
“naïve—yet blood stained … breasts”: Mabel Dodge Luhan to CVV, April 12, 1920, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“How can you like … more”: Mabel Dodge Luhan to CVV, c. June 1920, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“tall and slight … pince nez”: Mabel Dodge Luhan to CVV, October 8, 1920, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“Couldn’t you pick out … of them”: Flannery Burke, From Greenwich Village to Taos: Primitivism and Place at Mabel Dodge Luhan’s (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2008), 29.
Mabel acquired a new type … Lujan: Although Tony Lujan spelled his name the traditional Spanish way, Mabel Anglicized the name for her own use after they married, styling herself as Mabel Dodge Luhan.
“finally overcome all … environment”: Mabel Dodge Luhan, Edge of Taos Desert (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1937), 177.
“like the dawn of the world”: Mabel Dodge Luhan, Lorenzo in Taos (London: Martin Secker, 1933), 15.
His letters to Marinoff … Fifth Avenue: CVV to FM, January 8, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“I got very drunk … at 3”: CVV daybook, July 1, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL; Kellner, Splendid Drunken Twenties, 150.
“His face was … moonshine”: Dodge Luhan, “Twelfth Night,” 11, Mabel Dodge Luhan Papers, YCAL.
“cruel sophistication”: Ibid., 14.
“two overgrown schoolboys”: Ibid., 17.
Van Vechten wrote Marinoff … week: CVV to FM, January 14, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
A further letter … Fania: CVV to FM, January 16, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
One evening he and Tony … of thanks: CVV to FM, January 14, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“Not even Louis … thinking”: Dodge Luhan, “Twelfth Night,” 13, Mabel Dodge Luhan Papers, YCAL.