Carl Van Vechten- An Oft Forgotten Character

While shady might not be the right word to describe him, this extravagant patron of the black arts of Harlem in the 1920's was certainly far from the norm. At the same time highly private and extremely personable, this inegmatic character passed away in 1964, but not before producing thousands of photographs, seven novels, and countless essays and short stories.

In New York, on January, 1907, Van Vechten became the assistant music critic of the New York Times. It was not long, only a few months, until Van Vechten became restless and solicited money from his father to travel to Europe for the sole purpose of hearing European opera. However, on his trip, in London, on June 29, 1907, Carl Van Vechten married Anna Elizabeth Snyder, also from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. The two were acquaintances from childhood, and they had shared a common desire to flee Cedar Rapids. The marriage got off to a rough beginning. The couple ran out of money in Amsterdam and was stranded until money sent from home could finance their return. The marriage ended in divorce in 1912.

After his divorce, Van Vechten returned to Paris and began meeting a fascinating array of characters through his friend and famous salon host Mabel Dodge (later many of these new-found friends would serve as inspriation for his novel Peter Whipple). Paris was kind to him, it brought him the beginnings of literary success, and an interesting, well-connected group of friends. Most of all, it allowed him to meet his second wife, Fania Marinoff. The Russian born actress and beauty remained married to Van Vechten for nearly fifty years.

Shortly after his marriage to Fania, he began his prolific stint as a writer of light fiction. His first publication was a collection of critical essays entitled, Music After the Great War. By far his most controversal work was Nigger Heaven, which blew the lid off the nightlife culture of Harlem-though it must be said that most of the controversy surrounding the book stemmed from the title itself. Van Vechten himself claimed it was an ironic commentary about the injustice of blacks relegated to sitting in the poorest seats of Harlem playhouses while white audiences filled the best seats to bursting. While drawing fire from such literary giants as D.H. Lawrence (who wrote: “Mr. Van Vechten’s book is a nigger book, and not much of one”) other's such as black author and writer George S. Schuyler rallied around the book saying; "“Carl Van Vechten & has done more than any single person in this country to create the atmosphere of acceptance of the Negro.”

In 1932, after inheriting a huge packet (over 6 million dollars) from his late brother, Van Vechten gave up his role as theater critic and a novelist to become a full-time amateur photographer of the era's celebrated African Americal cultural figures. Van Vechten became close friends and confidants of his subjects such as blues women like Bessie Smith and theater greats Tallulah Bankhead and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson.

Once quoted as saying "I've photographed everybody from Matisse to Isamu Noguchi" Van Vechten was not just an elevated society photographer. Most of his photographs reflect his true love of the theater who considered his work as an important documentation of both literary and theatrical history.

Recently his private, homoerotic interracial photographs were unsealed from a long hidden archive. This may cast yet another light upon the life and the loves of Carl Van Vechten. But, it will no doubt allow us to see through his eyes into the wild and whirling past from the early to mid-Twentith Century.

Want to see more of his photography?
http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/cvvpw/
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/collections/vanvechten/

If you're ever at Waltham, Ma. Brandeis University stop by and visit the archives and special collections portion of the library. The Van Vechten estate donated his papers and extenisve photography catalog to the university in 1999. This webpage will tell you nearly diddly squat, but will at least put you on the right track:
http://lts.brandeis.edu/research/archives-speccoll/findingguides/special/vechten/


Other Information About Carl Van Vechten

http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/exploring/harlem/faces/vanvechten_text.html
http://www.temple.edu/tempress/titles/1696_reg.html


Many Thanks To:

Matthew Braley

Wallace Thurman

Lueders, Edward. Carl Van Vechten. Twayne: New York, 1965.

Padgette, Paul. The Dance Photography of Carl Van Vechten. Schirmer: New York, 1981.

Reuben, Paul P. "Chapter 9: Carl Van Vechten " PAL: Perspectives in American Literature- A Research and Reference Guide. WWW URL: http://web.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap9/vechten.html (provide page date or date of your login).