by Edward White
The “Indians” of Taos … surface: CVV to FM, January 14, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
After only five days … natives: CVV to FM, January 6, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
A couple of days before … “moodiness”: CVV daybook, January 11, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL; Kellner, Splendid Drunken Twenties, 151.
“Mr. Van Vechten was disappointed … Harlem”: Dodge Luhan, “Twelfth Night,” 17, Mabel Dodge Luhan Papers, YCAL.
“The air was all clear … singing”: Ibid.
she wrote him a letter … his stay: Mabel Dodge Luhan to CVV, March 4, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
suggested to his friend … good: CVV to Max Ewing, December 13, 1925, Max Ewing Papers, YCAL.
who wondered aloud why … changed: Mordaunt Hall, “Strange Parcel of Mirth Serves as Miss Negri’s Latest Vehicle,” New York Times, December 20, 1925, CVV scrapbook 17, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“more money, more … dissatisfaction”: CVV, “Fabulous Hollywood,” Vanity Fair (May 1927): 54.
Van Vechten worried … city: CVV to FM, January 19, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
Aside from the Fitzgeralds … above: CVV, “Fabulous Hollywood,” 54.
“often late in the afternoon … night”: Ibid.
“Say that I am one author … around”: Gilmore Millen, “Carl Von [sic] Vechten in L.A. Tells His Ideas of Authors,” Los Angeles Evening Herald, January 20, 1927. Clipping included in a letter from CVV to FM, January 22, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“an astonishing sight” … hills: CVV daybook, January 19, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
The very next morning … command: CVV daybook, January 20, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“as much intensive study … Earth”: CVV to FM, January 24, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL; Kellner, Letters of Carl Van Vechten, 92.
meeting every significant person … master: CVV to FM, January 24, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
For Vanity Vair … “humanity”: CVV, “Hollywood Royalty,” Vanity Fair (July 1927): 38.
As the three of them entered … ovation: Ibid.
“the power of satisfying wishes”: Ibid.
“accompanied by nude Nubians with torches”: Ibid.
“I am swimming among movie stars”: CVV to FM, January 24, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL; Kellner, Letters of Carl Van Vechten, 93.
Like a tourist … roll call: CVV, “Hollywood Parties,” Vanity Fair (June 1927): 47.
“Never before … Hollywood”: Ibid.
“which may have been something … concerned”: Ibid.
she told Carl bluntly … together: FM to CVV, January 19, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
She received assurances … teetotal: CVV to FM, January 24, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“incredible, fantastic, colossal”: Van Vechten, “Fabulous Hollywood,” Vanity Fair, 54.
“walls of the Hollywood houses … hollow”: CVV, “Understanding Hollywood,” Vanity Fair (August 1927), 78.
11. A QUITE GAY, BUT EMPTY, BUBBLE THAT DAZZLES ONE IN BURSTING
she sent letters home … end: See letters from FM to CVV throughout April and May 1927, especially a lengthy one dated May 13, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
a new sense of menace … Cummings: CVV daybook, entries from April and May 1927; the references to the violence at Bob Chanler’s appear on April 5, 1927, and April 14, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
although the movie producer Arthur Hornblow … story: CVV to FM, April 18, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
In an attempt to get him … next: FM to CVV, April 29, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“embarked on a party that lasted three months”: Sara Mayfield, Exiles from Paradise: Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald (New York: Delacorte Press, 1971), 119.
“Charles Lindbergh arrives … aircraft”: CVV daybook, May 21, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL; Kellner, Splendid Drunken Twenties, 166.
“From the depths … drunkenness”: Zelda Fitzgerald to CVV, May 27, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
“a gas range … dining room”: Zelda Fitzgerald to CVV, May 29, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
“way of life didn’t appeal to me”: The Reminiscences of Carl Van Vechten (May 2, 1960), 226, CCOHC.
“they both drank … excessive”: Nancy Milford, Zelda Fitzgerald (London: Penguin Books, 1985), 110.
“You need a change … see you”: Hugh Walpole to CVV, April 22, 1927, Hugh Walpole Papers, Berg.
He was now gaunt … escapades: CVV daybook, June 12, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
Ralph passed away … June 28: CVV daybook, June 28, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
phlebitis in his leg: Problems with CVV’s leg, for which he was given a number of diagnoses and treatments, persisted for years.
“I adore having Marinoff … alive”: CVV daybook, July 4, 1927, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL; Kellner, Splendid Drunken Twenties, 170.
He wrote Mabel … tranquillity: CVV to Mabel Dodge Luhan, October 10, 1927, Mabel Dodge Luhan Papers, YCAL.
a depressing experience … problems: CVV to Aileen Pringle, December 19, 1927, Aileen Pringle Papers, YCAL.
“Van Vechten Follywood … Bursting”: Anthony J. Casey, “Van Vechten Follywood a Quite Gay, but Empty, Bubble That Dazzles One in Bursting”, Brooklyn Eagle, August 26, 1928, CVV scrapbook 23, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“My revulsion towards … complete”: CVV daybook, March 6, 1928, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL; Kellner, Splendid Drunken Twenties, 199.
“I listened for two hours … knees”: Gilmore Millen, “C. Van Vechten Wants to See Aimee, Fox,” Los Angeles Herald, February 29, 1928, CVV scrapbook 22, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“I only hope that you didn’t … damn”: H. L. Mencken to CVV, March 3, 1928, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
Somerset Maugham wrote … “water”: Somerset Maugham to CVV, July 21, 1928, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“You just can’t beat … later”: FM to CVV, July 30, 1928, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL; Jack F. Sharrar, Avery Hopwood: His Life and Plays (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 1989), 195.
Van Vechten scribbled in his notebook … turn: CVV notebook from 1928, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
A few days after spotting … company: Ibid.
when he met Greta Garbo … immediately: CVV to FM, February 26, 1928, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“That was almost my fate … Harlem”: The Reminiscences of Carl Van Vechten (May 2, 1960), 206, CCOHC.
“You’ll find little Harlems … it all”: Langston Hughes to CVV, May 8, 1929, Bernard, Remember Me to Harlem, 64.
Paul Robeson’s highly praised … Theatre: Sheila Tully Boyle and Andrew Bunie, Paul Robeson: The Years of Promise and Achievement (Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2001), 192–206, provides a useful account of Robeson’s popularity in Britain at the same time.
“It was their first party” … Astaire: CVV to Gertrude Stein, November 27, 1928, Burns, Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten, 184.
Van Vechten passed several long nights … rent boys: CVV daybook, various entries for June, July, and August 1929, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“Exhausted by wars … themselves”: Alfred A. Knopf advertisement for Parties, c. August 1930, CVV scrapbook 24, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“hot asphalt, a distinct … streets”: CVV, Parties (1930; repr., Los Angeles: Sun & Moon Press, 1993), 141.
“most of which … years ago”: Ibid., 142.
“what is new … is old”: Ibid., 140.
“that interest in America … Europe”: Jack Campbell, “Speaking of Beaux-Arts … Carl Van Vechten Returns,” New York Herald (Paris edition), August 10, 1930, CVV scrapbook 24, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“bootlegger, speakeasy, buffet-flat … ecstasy”: CVV, Parties, 185.
/> “the expression of electricity and living movement”: Ibid, 186.
“It is so funny … country”: Ibid., 260.
“‘Parties’ scared me … upsetting”: Mabel Dodge Luhan to CVV, September 22, 1930, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
“strange” and “disquieting”: Joseph Hergesheimer to CVV, November 10, 1930, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
Marinoff was less diplomatic … home: CVV daybook, April 23, 1930, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL; FM diary, April 22, 1930, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
“they have so much in common … Freud”: H. O., “Freud and Van Vechten on Our Attempts to Escape Unhappiness,” Baltimore Evening Sun, September 13, 1930, CVV scrapbook 24, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
In time he came … achieved: In a letter to Reverend Peter Francis O’Brien, S.J., written one week before his death, CVV described Parties as his best novel. CVV to Reverend Peter Francis O’Brien, S.J., December 14, 1964. Letters in the possession of Reverend Peter Francis O’Brien, S.J.
“He was getting on … fifty”: CVV, Parties, 238.
On August 22 … lesbians: CVV daybook, August 22, 1930, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
the Silhouette, a favorite … ties: See Florence Tamagne, A History of Homosexuality in Europe, 1919–1939 (New York: Algora Publishing, 2004) and Mel Gordon, Voluptuous Panic: The Erotic World of Weimar Berlin (Port Townsend, WA: Feral House, 2000) for vivid details of the clubs Van Vechten visited during his trip.
“I am very sad … place”: CVV daybook, August 28, 1930, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL; Kellner, Splendid Drunken Twenties, 299.
On May 18 … research: CVV to FM, May 18, 1931, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“rotten act”: CVV to FM, May 21, 1931, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL; Kellner, Letters of Carl Van Vechten, 122.
“already forgotten … flowers”: CVV to FM, May 22, 1931, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL; Kellner, Letters of Carl Van Vechten, 122.
12. PAPA WOOJUMS
he telegrammed Marinoff … airborne: CVV to FM, October 10, 1931, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL; CVV to Gertrude Stein, October 19, 1931, Burns, Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten, 246.
“tinkers with planes … liked it”: Joseph Mitchell, “Mrs. Van Vechten, ‘Tired of the Speakos,’ Becomes Fania Marinoff of Stage Again,” New York World-Telegram, January 12, 1932, CVV scrapbook 25, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
“Taylor Crump is … there”: Hunter Stagg to CVV, August 15, 1926, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
When they first spoke … high-handedness: Mark Lutz to Bruce Kellner, June 29, 1967, Bruce Kellner Papers, YCAL.
In one of his notebooks … nature: CVV notebook, undated, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.
put Lutz in touch … trial: For commentary and analysis of Hughes’s response to the Scottsboro Boys incident, see Rampersad, I, Too, Sing America, 216–31; Langston Hughes and Susan Duffy, The Political Plays of Langston Hughes (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2000).
“It was disappointing … yesterday”: Mark Lutz to CVV, December 16, 1944, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
“I settled down … MILLUN”: Mark Lutz to CVV, June 20, 1945, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
“bright winter Saturdays”: Prentiss Taylor to Bruce Kellner, May 21, 1980, Bruce Kellner Papers, YCAL.
“Great photographers are born, not educated”: “Born to Use a Lens,” New York Herald Tribune, October 16, 1938, CVV scrapbook 27, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL. CVV gave his opinions on what makes a great photographer in his review of Walker Evans’s seminal collection American Photographs.
As early as February … hold an exhibition: CVV to Gertrude Stein, February 28, 1932, Burns, Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten, 252.
struggling to decide … good: CVV to Max Ewing, February 7, 1932, Max Ewing Papers, YCAL.
By June he was … talent: CVV to Mabel Dodge Luhan, June 10, 1932, Mabel Dodge Luhan Papers, YCAL.
“My first subject … O’Neill”: J. M. Flagler, “The Talk of the Town: Van Vechten,” New Yorker (January 12, 1963), 21.
the volume of celebrated people … shoot: Prints of all these photographs can be found in Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
“a few glasses … self-consciousness”: Mark Lutz to Bruce Kellner, June 29, 1967, Bruce Kellner Papers, YCAL.
“in about a twentieth of a second”: The Reminiscences of Carl Van Vechten (May 18, 1960), 306, CCOHC.
“She began to cry … laughing”: Ibid.
“There are no good photographs … of her”: Ibid.
he used much of the same … “documentary”: CVV to Mary Seymour, October 19, 1942, Kellner, The Letters of Carl Van Vechten, 187; The Reminiscences of Carl Van Vechten (May 14, 1960), 232, CCOHC.
“The revolutionary poems … ever”: CVV to Langston Hughes, March 4, 1933, Bernard, Remember Me to Harlem, 103–104.
“the only person one can improve is oneself”: CVV to Noel Sullivan, February 13, 1940, Kellner, Letters of Carl Van Vechten, 172.
On March 7 … Germany: FM diary, March 7, 1934, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
She spent a good deal … marriage: FM diary, April 1935, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
In the summer of 1933 … Taos: Prints of this series of photographs are in Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
Even on December 31 … time: FM diary, December 31, 1935, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
“elegance in the ordinary”: Lincoln Kirstein, “An Unpublished Eulogy for Carl Van Vechten, December 23, 1964,” Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
“first saw an American ballet … ballerinas”: Ibid.
In May 1933 … “good”: CVV to Gertrude Stein, May 1, 1933, Burns, Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten, 266.
“only gave real loyalty … to her”: Andrea Weiss, Paris Was a Woman: Portraits from the Left Bank (London: Pandora, 1995), 98.
“a tinge of jealousy”: CVV to Gertrude Stein, October 23, 1933, Burns, Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten, 282.
“OUR Three Lives”: CVV to Gertrude Stein, September 21, 1933, Burns, Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten, 277.
“I am getting very excited”: Gertrude Stein to CVV, February 5, 1934, Burns, Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten, 294.
“I haven’t seen a crowd” … day: CVV to Gertrude Stein, February 8, 1934, Burns, Letters of Carl Van Vechten and Gertrude Stein, 295.
Henry-Russell Hitchcock … tears: Steve Watson, Prepare for Saints: Gertrude Stein, Virgil Thomson, and the Mainstreaming of American Modernism (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000), 279.
he also implied that … in 1933: CVV, “A Few Notes About Four Saints in Three Acts,” Gertrude Stein, Four Saints in Three Acts. An Opera to Be Sung, etc. (New York: Random House, 1934), 7.
Thomson maintained his … elsewhere: Watson, Prepare for Saints, 199.
On her first night back … them all: FM diary, October 24, 1934, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
The scholar Tirza True Latimer … rival: Wanda M. Corn and Tirza True Latimer, Seeing Gertrude Stein: Five Stories (Berkeley and London: University of California Press, 2011), 149.
On receiving the Virginia … “happy”: Gertrude Stein to CVV, March 12, 1935, Burns, Letters of Gertrude Stein and Carl Van Vechten, 411.
A matter of weeks into the tour … time: CVV to Mabel Dodge Luhan, c. November 1934, Mabel Dodge Luhan Papers, YCAL.
“Thornton Wilder has got me … PLEASE!”: CVV to Gertrude Stein, 1935, Corn and Latimer, Seeing Gertrude Stein, 150.
“I always wanted to be … baby on”: Gertrude Stein and CVV, “A Message from Gertrude Stein,” Selected Writings of Gertrude Stein (New York: Vintage Books, 1990), vii.
“It is violent and gentle … genuine”: Douglas Gilbert, “U.S. Is ‘Violent and Gentle,’ Miss Stein’s Parting Shot,” New York World-Telegram, May 4, 1935, CVV scrapbook 26, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL
13. YALE MAY NOT THINK SO,
BUT IT’LL BE JUST JOLLY
“Im [sic] in a big show … notice!”: CVV to Langston Hughes, November 29, 1935, Bernard, Remember Me to Harlem, 133.
“literature’s loss is photography’s gain”: Henry McBride, “The Leica Exhibition,” New York Sun, November 30, 1935.
Man Ray, who was … work: Man Ray to CVV, September 14, 1934, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
“They are damn swell … few”: Alfred Stieglitz to CVV, September 25, 1933, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
“cold sober and … mood”: CVV, “Memories of Bessie Smith,” Jazz Record (September 1947): 7.
“I got nearer her real personality … exist”: Ibid., 29.
“I hadn’t planned to meet … saw him”: Milford, Zelda Fitzgerald, 347.
“a nice, sober … side”: Frances Scott Fitzgerald Lanahan to CVV, August 7, 1948, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
“the glamour … years ago”: Zelda Fitzgerald to CVV, December 29, 1940, Carl Van Vechten Papers, YCAL.
“one red, one white … Americans”: Hughes, The Big Sea, 254–55.
“I always said … amusing”: The Reminiscences of Carl Van Vechten (May 14, 1960), 270, CCOHC.
“tolerant of unorthodox behavior … advice”: Bernard, Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance, 214.
a bronze statue … requested: For an illuminating analysis of this episode, see Bernard, Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance.
“Walter was never … Johnson was”: The Reminiscences of Carl Van Vechten (May 14, 1960), 266, CCOHC.
“to induce others to make … collection”: CVV, “The J. W. Johnson Collection at Yale,” Crisis (July 1942): 222.
“and no doubt verge toward the grandiloquent”: Langston Hughes to CVV, October 30, 1941, Bernard, Remember Me to Harlem, 193.
“Don’t be selfconscious about Yale … halls”: CVV to Langston Hughes, April 11, 1941, Bernard, Remember Me to Harlem, 196.
“was all white people’s … places”: The Reminiscences of Carl Van Vechten (May 18, 1960), 294–95, CCOHC.
“I am mad over … segregation”: CVV to Arna Bontemps, December 31, 1943, Arna Bontemps Collection, YCAL; Kellner, Letters of Carl Van Vechten, 199.
“The use of riches … level”: George Santayana, The Last Puritan: A Memoir in the Form of a Novel (London: Constable & Co., 1935); CVV notebook, Carl Van Vechten Papers, NYPL.