{"id":3152,"date":"2017-09-19T18:49:14","date_gmt":"2017-09-19T18:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/courses.suzannechurchill.com\/eng394-f17\/?p=3152"},"modified":"2017-09-19T20:39:25","modified_gmt":"2017-09-19T20:39:25","slug":"carl-van-vechten-biography-first-draft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.suzannechurchill.com\/eng394-f17\/2017\/09\/19\/carl-van-vechten-biography-first-draft\/","title":{"rendered":"Carl Van Vechten Biography (First Draft)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Draft 1<\/p>\n

Carl Van Vechten was a writer, critic, and photographer who collaborated with and documented the most influential figures of the avant-garde movement. He served as editor, publisher, and literary executor for figures such as Langston Hughes, Gertrude Stein, and Mina Loy in both official and unofficial capacities (MacLeod 361). A collector and admirer of African-American art, he was also one of the first patrons of the Harlem Renaissance.<\/p>\n

Van Vechten was born on June 17, 1880 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. He showed an interest in the arts throughout his youth and studied music and visual art during his time at the University of Chicago. He began an extensive career as a journalist when he began writing for the University of Chicago Weekly <\/em>(\u201cVan Vechten Collection\u201d).<\/p>\n

After graduating, Van Vechten wrote for the Chicago American<\/em>. He moved to New York City in 1906, where he worked as a music critic for the New York Times<\/em>. Deciding to explore his renewed interest in opera, he took a leave of absence in 1907 to travel Europe. While abroad, he married Anna Snyder, a longtime friend from his hometown (\u201cVan Vechten Collection\u201d).<\/p>\n

He first crossed paths with Mina Loy while they were both living in Florence. At that time, Van Vechten was a guest at Mabel Dodge\u2019s villa. He and Loy would remain friends, collaborators, and regular correspondents long after their first meeting. Van Vechten submitted the poems Loy sent him for publication in New York magazines (Hascombe and Smyers 112-128). During this period in Florence, he and Mabel Dodge encouraged to Loy live in New York in the future (Kouidis 170).<\/p>\n

Upon returning to the Times <\/em>in 1909, he took an interest in modern dance due to Isadora Duncan\u2019s prominence at the time, becoming the first American critic to cover modern dance (MacLeod 365).<\/p>\n

Two years after he and Snyder divorced, Van Vechten married actress Fania Marinoff in 1914. He left his job and began an independent writing career, publishing several collections of essays. His first novel, Peter Whiffle: His Life and Works<\/em>, was published in 1922 (\u201cVan Vechten Collection\u201d).<\/p>\n

An attentive spectator of the underground zeitgeist, Van Vechten took interest in promoting the work of black artists in New York City. He began what would become an extensive collection of African-American art. A frequent visitor of Harlem, he drew from his experiences to write his 1926 novel, Nigger Heaven<\/em>, a novel about Harlem society and responses to racism and segregation. The novel immediately became a bestseller and an epicenter of controversy, both defended and denounced by black and white readers. W.E.B. DuBois called it \u201can affront to the hospitality of black folk and to the intelligence of the white,\u201d while Alain Locke praised the work as a \u201ccorrective sketch for the white reader who takes Negro life underseriously and for the black reader who takes it over seriously\u201d (Helbling 38-39).<\/p>\n

He soon turned to photography as his primary mode of artistic expression. He photographed many creators and influencers of the avant-garde and Harlem Renaissance.<\/p>\n

While volunteering at the Stage Door Canteen at the during the Second World War, Van Vechten met Saul Mauriber, who was working as a busboy at the time. Mauriber became his assistant and lifelong friend, and helped him organize his photographs (\u201cVan Vechten Collection\u201d).<\/p>\n

At 84 years of age, Van Vechten died on December 21, 1964 in New York City. Mauriber became the photographic executor for his estate, eventually entrusting the Library of Congress with his collection of over 1,400 photographs in 1966 (\u201cVan Vechten Collection\u201d).<\/p>\n

Van Vechten is remembered as a generous donor, having given much of his collection to organizations such as Tale University, New York Public Library, and the Museum of Modern Art (Gallup 54, MacLeod 362). He remains an important peripheral figure of the Harlem Renaissance and a central agent of the New York avant-garde.<\/p>\n

Biographical Information:<\/p>\n