Carl Van Vechten (June 17, 1880 – December 21, 1964) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writerA writer is anyone who creates a written work, though the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms.-Profession:...
and
photographerA photographer is a person who takes photographs using a camera. A professional photographer uses photography to make a living whilst an amateur photographer does not earn a living and typically takes photographs for pleasure and to record an event, place or person for future enjoyment.A...
who was a patron of the
Harlem RenaissanceThe Harlem Renaissance refers to the flowering of African American cultural and intellectual life during the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology The New Negro edited by Alain Locke...
and the
literary executorA literary executor is a person with decision-making power in respect of a literary estate.The literary estate of an author who has died will often consist mainly of the copyright and other intellectual property rights of published works, including for example film and translation rights...
of
Gertrude SteinGertrude Stein was an American writer who spent most of her life in France, and who became a catalyst in the development of modern art and literature. Her life was marked by two primary relationships, the first with her brother Leo Stein, from 1874-1914 , and the second with Alice B...
.
Born in
Cedar Rapids, IowaCedar Rapids is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Iowa and is the county seat of Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, north of Iowa City and east of Des Moines, the largest city and state's capital. City Hall and the County Courthouse are located on Mays...
, he graduated from
Washington High SchoolWashington High School is a public high school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa-The First Washington High School:For 80 years, Washington was the flagship school in the Cedar Rapids community. Construction began on the first Washington in 1855 on the corner of Fourth Avenue and Fifth Street S.E...
in 1898, and later the
University of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private, coeducational research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by oil magnate and benefactor John D...
in 1903. In 1906, he moved to
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
. He was hired as the assistant
music criticA music critic is someone who reviews music and publishes writing on them in books or journals...
at the
New York Times. His interest in opera had him take a
leave of absenceLeave of absence is a term used to describe a period of time that one is to be away from his/her primary job, while maintaining the status of employee...
from the paper in 1907, to travel to Europe to explore opera.
Carl Van Vechten (June 17, 1880 – December 21, 1964) was an
AmericanThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
writerA writer is anyone who creates a written work, though the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally, as well as those who have written in many different forms.-Profession:...
and
photographerA photographer is a person who takes photographs using a camera. A professional photographer uses photography to make a living whilst an amateur photographer does not earn a living and typically takes photographs for pleasure and to record an event, place or person for future enjoyment.A...
who was a patron of the
Harlem RenaissanceThe Harlem Renaissance refers to the flowering of African American cultural and intellectual life during the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology The New Negro edited by Alain Locke...
and the
literary executorA literary executor is a person with decision-making power in respect of a literary estate.The literary estate of an author who has died will often consist mainly of the copyright and other intellectual property rights of published works, including for example film and translation rights...
of
Gertrude SteinGertrude Stein was an American writer who spent most of her life in France, and who became a catalyst in the development of modern art and literature. Her life was marked by two primary relationships, the first with her brother Leo Stein, from 1874-1914 , and the second with Alice B...
.
Biography
Born in
Cedar Rapids, IowaCedar Rapids is the second largest city in the U.S. state of Iowa and is the county seat of Linn County. The city lies on both banks of the Cedar River, north of Iowa City and east of Des Moines, the largest city and state's capital. City Hall and the County Courthouse are located on Mays...
, he graduated from
Washington High SchoolWashington High School is a public high school in Cedar Rapids, Iowa-The First Washington High School:For 80 years, Washington was the flagship school in the Cedar Rapids community. Construction began on the first Washington in 1855 on the corner of Fourth Avenue and Fifth Street S.E...
in 1898, and later the
University of ChicagoThe University of Chicago is a private, coeducational research university in Chicago, Illinois, USA. It was founded by oil magnate and benefactor John D...
in 1903. In 1906, he moved to
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
. He was hired as the assistant
music criticA music critic is someone who reviews music and publishes writing on them in books or journals...
at the
New York Times. His interest in opera had him take a
leave of absenceLeave of absence is a term used to describe a period of time that one is to be away from his/her primary job, while maintaining the status of employee...
from the paper in 1907, to travel to Europe to explore opera. While in England he married his long time friend from Cedar Rapids, Anna Snyder. He returned to his job at the
New York Times in 1909 and then became the first American critic of
modern danceModern dance is a dance form developed in the early 20th century. Although the term Modern dance has also been applied to a category of 20th Century broom dances, Modern dance as a term usually refers to 20th century concert dance.-Origins:...
. At that time,
Isadora DuncanIsadora Duncan was an American dancer. She was born Angela Isadora Duncan in San Francisco, California. Isadora Duncan is considered by many to be the mother of modern dance...
, Anna Pavlova, and
Loie FullerLoie Fuller Loie Fuller Loie Fuller (also Loïe Fuller; (January 15 1862 – January 1 1928) was a pioneer of both modern dance and theatrical lighting techniques.-Career:...
were performing in
New York CityNew York is the most populous city in the United States, and the center of the New York metropolitan area, which is among the most populous urban areas in the world. A leading global city, New York exerts a powerful influence over worldwide commerce, finance, culture, fashion and entertainment...
. The marriage to Anna Snyder ended in divorce in 1912 and he wed actress
Fania MarinoffFania Marinoff was a Russian-born American actress. She played supporting and lead roles in dozens of Broadway plays between 1903 and 1937, and eight U.S. silent movies between 1914 and 1917....
in 1914.
Several books of Van Vechten's essays on various subjects such as music and literature were published between 1915 and 1920. Between
1922The year 1922 in literature involved some significant events and new books.Under the current U.S. copyright law, all works published before January 1, 1923 with a proper copyright notice entered the public domain no later than 75 years from the date of the copyright...
and
1930The year 1930 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*January 6 - The first literary character licensing agreement is signed by A. A. Milne, granting Stephen Slesinger U.S...
Knopf published seven novels by Van Vechten, starting with
Peter Whiffle: His Life and Works and ending with
Parties.
Van Vechten was interested in black writers and artists, and knew and promoted many of the major figures of the
Harlem RenaissanceThe Harlem Renaissance refers to the flowering of African American cultural and intellectual life during the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after the 1925 anthology The New Negro edited by Alain Locke...
, including
Langston HughesJames Mercer Langston Hughes, was an American poet, novelist, playwright, short story writer, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the new literary art form jazz poetry...
,
Richard WrightRichard Nathaniel Wright was an African-American author.-Early life:Wright, the grandson of former slaves, was born on the Rucker plantation in Roxie, Mississippi, in Franklin County, just outside of Natchez....
, and
Wallace ThurmanWallace Henry Thurman was an American novelist during the Harlem Renaissance. He is best known for his novel The Blacker the Berry: A Novel of Negro Life, which explores discrimination among black people based on skin color....
. Van Vechten's controversial novel
Nigger HeavenNigger Heaven is a novel written by Carl Van Vechten , set during the Harlem Renaissance in the United States in the 1920s. The book and its title have been controversial since its publication...
was published in
1926The year 1926 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:*Bread Loaf Writers' Conference is founded in Middlebury, Vermont....
. An essay of his entitled "Negro Blues Singers" was published in
Vanity FairVanity Fair is an American Hollywood magazine of pop culture, fashion, and politics published by Condé Nast Publications. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1981 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition...
in 1926.
In the 1930s, Van Vechten began taking portrait photographs. Among the many individuals he photographed were
Ruby DeeRuby Dee is an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and activist.-Early years:Dee was born Ruby Ann Wallace in Cleveland, Ohio, the daughter of Gladys Hightower and Marshall Edward Nathaniel Wallace, a cook, waiter, and porter. After her mother left the family, Dee's...
,
Gertrude SteinGertrude Stein was an American writer who spent most of her life in France, and who became a catalyst in the development of modern art and literature. Her life was marked by two primary relationships, the first with her brother Leo Stein, from 1874-1914 , and the second with Alice B...
,
Alicia MarkovaMadame Alicia Markova DBE was an English ballerina, choreographer, director and teacher. She was the first British dancer to become the principal dancer of a ballet company and one of only two British dancers to be recognised as a Prima Ballerina Assoluta. She was widely considered to be one of...
,
Judith AndersonDame Judith Anderson, AC, DBE was an Australian actress of stage and screen, who was also nominated for a Grammy and an Oscar...
,
George SchuylerGeorge Samuel Schuyler , was an African American author, journalist and social commentator known for his conservative views.-Early life:...
,
Frida KahloFrida Kahlo was a Mexican painter. She painted using vibrant colors in a style that was influenced by indigenous cultures of Mexico and European influences including Realism, Symbolism, and Surrealism. Many of her works are self-portraits that symbolically articulate her own pain and sexuality...
,
Diego RiveraDiego Rivera was born Diego María de la Concepción Juan Nepomuceno Estanislao de la Rivera y Barrientos Acosta y Rodríguez in Guanajuato, Gto. He was a world-famous Mexican painter, an active Communist, and husband of Frida Kahlo, 1929–1939 and 1940–1954...
,
Henry MillerHenry Valentine Miller was an American novelist and painter. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is...
,
Anna May WongAnna May Wong was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star...
,
Jane BowlesJane Bowles, born Jane Sydney Auer , was an American writer and playwright.-Early life:Born into a Jewish family in New York, Jane Bowles spent her childhood in Woodmere, New York, on Long Island...
,
Mahalia JacksonMahalia Jackson was an African-American gospel singer. With her powerful, distinct voice, Mahalia Jackson became one of the most influential gospel singers in the world and is the first Queen of Gospel Music...
,
W. Somerset MaughamWilliam Somerset Maugham , CH was an English playwright, novelist and short story writer...
,
F. Scott FitzgeraldFrancis Scott Key Fitzgerald was an American author of novels and short stories, whose works are evocative of the Jazz Age, a term he coined himself. He is widely regarded as one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. Fitzgerald is considered a member of the "Lost Generation" of the Twenties...
,
Bessie SmithBessie Smith was an American blues singer.Sometimes referred to as "The Empress of the Blues", Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s, She is often regarded as one of the greatest singers of her era, and along with Louis Armstrong, a major influence on subsequent...
,
Paul CadmusPaul Cadmus was an American artist. He is best known for his paintings and drawings of nude male figures. His works combined elements of eroticism and social critique to produce a style often called magic realism...
,
Marc ChagallMarc Chagall ; [shuh-GAHL] , was a Russian-French artist, associated with several key art movements and was one of the most successful artists of the twentieth century. He forged a unique career in virtually every artistic medium, including paintings, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets,...
,
John HerseyJohn Richard Hersey was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American writer and journalist considered one of the earliest practitioners of the so-called New Journalism, in which storytelling devices of the novel are fused with non-fiction reportage...
,
Horst P. HorstHorst P. Horst, most often known as just Horst, was a German American photographer best known for his photographs of women and fashion taken while working for Vogue magazine.-Childhood:...
,
Georgia O'KeeffeGeorgia Totto O'Keeffe was an American artist. Born near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, O'Keeffe was a major figure in American art from the 1920s. She received widespread recognition for her technical contributions, as well as for challenging the boundaries of modern American artistic style...
,
Gore VidalGore Vidal is an American author, playwright, essayist, screenwriter and political activist...
,
Sidney LumetSidney Lumet is an American film director, with over 50 films to his name, including 12 Angry Men , Serpico , Dog Day Afternoon , Network and The Verdict , all of which, except for Serpico , earned him Academy Award nominations for Best Director.According to The Encyclopedia of Hollywood,...
,
Salvador DaliSalvador Domingo Felipe Jacinto Dalí i Domènech, 1st Marquis of Púbol was a Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres....
,
James StewartJames Maitland "Jimmy" Stewart was an American film and stage actor, best known for his self-effacing persona. Over the course of his career, he starred in many films widely considered classics and was nominated for five Academy Awards, winning one in competition and receiving one Lifetime...
,
Marlon BrandoMarlon Brando, Jr. was an American actor whose body of work spanned over half a century. He was named the fourth Greatest Male Star of All Time by the American Film Institute, and part of Time magazine's Time 100: The Most Important People of the Century He is widely considered one of the...
,
Orson WellesGeorge Orson Welles was an American film director, writer, actor and producer, who worked extensively in film, theatre, television, and radio. Welles was also an accomplished magician, starring in troop variety spectacles in the war years...
,
Norman MailerNorman Kingsley Mailer was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, poet, playwright, screenwriter and film director.Along with Truman Capote, Joan Didion, Hunter S...
,
Evelyn WaughArthur Evelyn St. John Waugh was an English writer, best known for such darkly humorous and satirical novels as Decline and Fall, Vile Bodies, Scoop, A Handful of Dust, and The Loved One, as well as for serious works, such as Brideshead Revisited and the Sword of Honour trilogy that clearly...
,
Erskine CaldwellErskine Preston Caldwell was an American author.-Biography:Caldwell was born in a house in the woods outside Moreland, Georgia, the son of a minister in the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church...
,
Ella FitzgeraldElla Jane Fitzgerald , also known as "Lady Ella", and the "First Lady of Song", was an American jazz vocalist....
,
Beverly SillsBeverly Sills was a Jewish American operatic soprano who enjoyed a successful career during the 1950s through the 1970s....
,
Alfred StieglitzAlfred Stieglitz was an American photographer and modern art promoter who was instrumental over his fifty-year career in making photography an accepted art form...
,
Truman CapoteTruman Garcia Capote , born Truman Streckfus Persons, was an American writer, many of whose short stories, novels, plays, and nonfiction are recognized literary classics, including the novella Breakfast at Tiffany's and In Cold Blood , which he labeled a "nonfiction novel"...
,
Billie Holiday Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed Lady Day by her loyal friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday was a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing...
,
James BaldwinJames Arthur Baldwin was an American novelist, writer, playwright, poet, essayist and civil rights activist.Most of Baldwin's work deals with racial and sexual issues in the mid-20th century in the United States...
,
Cesar RomeroCesar Julio Romero, Jr. was a Cuban American film and television actor, best known for his portrayal of The Joker in the 1960s television series Batman...
,
Tallulah BankheadTallulah Brockman Bankhead was an American actress, talk-show host and bon vivant.- Early life and family :...
,
Alfred LuntAlfred Lunt was an American stage director and actor, often identified for an incomparable, long-time professional partnership with his wife, actress Lynn Fontanne...
,
Lynn FontanneLynn Fontanne was a British actress and major stage star in the United States for over 40 years, who with her husband Alfred Lunt was part of the most acclaimed acting team in the history of the American theater....
, and Sir Laurence Olivier.
Van Vechten initially met
Gertrude SteinGertrude Stein was an American writer who spent most of her life in France, and who became a catalyst in the development of modern art and literature. Her life was marked by two primary relationships, the first with her brother Leo Stein, from 1874-1914 , and the second with Alice B...
in
ParisParis is the capital of France and the country's most populous city. It is situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1913. They continued corresponding for the remainder of Stein's life, and at her death she appointed Van Vechten her literary executor; he helped to bring into print her unpublished writings.
After the 1930s, Van Vechten published little writing, though he continued to write letters to many correspondents.
Although Van Vechten was married to
Fania MarinoffFania Marinoff was a Russian-born American actress. She played supporting and lead roles in dozens of Broadway plays between 1903 and 1937, and eight U.S. silent movies between 1914 and 1917....
until the end of his life, he was either a homosexual or a bisexual. Some of his papers were kept under seal for 25 years after his death, and when they were examined after that time, they were found to include scrapbooks of photographs and clippings related to
homosexualityHomosexuality is the romantic or sexual attraction or behavior among members of the same sex, situationally or as an enduring disposition. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is considered to lie within the heterosexual-homosexual continuum of human sexuality, and refers to an individual’s...
.
He died at the age of 84 in New York City. Van Vechten was the subject of a 1968 biography by Bruce Kellner,
Carl Van Vechten and the Irreverent Decades.
Archive
Most of Van Vechten's papers are held by the Beinecke Library at
Yale UniversityYale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut, and a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States. Yale has produced many notable alumni, including five...
. The Beinecke Library also holds a collection titled "Living Portraits: Carl Van Vechten's Color Photographs Of African Americans, 1939-196", a collection of 1,884 color
KodachromeKodachrome is the trademarked brand name of a type of color reversal film that was manufactured by Eastman Kodak from 1935 to 2009. Kodachrome was the first successfully mass-marketed color still film using a subtractive method, in contrast to earlier additive "screenplate" methods such as...
slides. The
Library of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress and is the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and holds the largest number of books. The head...
acquired its collection of approximately 1,400 photographs in 1966 from Saul Mauriber. There is also a collection of his photos in the Prentiss Taylor collection in the Archive of American Art, a division of the
Smithsonian InstitutionThe Smithsonian Institution is an educational and research institute and associated museum complex, administered and funded by the government of the United States and by funds from its endowment, contributions, and profits from its shops and its magazines...
.
External links
- Creative Americans: Portraits by Carl Van Vechten at the Library of Congress features a searchable database of photographs taken by Van Vechten.
- Carl Van Vechten's Portraits from the collection of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University features a searchable database of over 9,000 black and white prints
- Harlem Renaissance - Carl Van Vechten: Webpage with bibliography of books and articles by and about Van Vechten.
- Living Portraits: Carl Van Vechten's Color Photographs Of African Americans, 1939-1964 from the collection of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University features a searchable database of 1,884 rare color Kodachrome slides
- Extravagant Crowd: Carl Van Vechten's Portraits of Women
- Books by Carl Van Vechten at the Universal Library at Carnegie-Mellon
- Postcards from Manhattan: The Portrait Photography of Carl Van Vechten at Marquette University
Marquette University is a private, coeducational, Jesuit, Roman Catholic university located in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Founded by the Society of Jesus in 1881, the school is one of 28 member institutions of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities...
reproduces hundreds of portrait postcards sent by Van Vechten to Wisconsin artist Karl PriebeKarl J. Priebe was an American painter from Milwaukee, Wisconsin whose studies and paintings of birds, exotic animals, and African-American culture won him international recognition.- Biography :...
from 1946-1956.