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Biography of Carl Van VechtenName: Carl Van VechtenBirth Date: June 17, 1880 Death Date: December 21, 1964 Place of Birth: Cedar Rapids, Iowa, United States Nationality: American Gender: Male Occupations: writer, photographer Carl Van Vechten American author and photographer Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) was a champion of modern music and dance in the early years of the twentieth century, and went on to enjoy critical acclaim for his witty novels that chronicled a charmed set in 1920s New York and Paris. Van Vechten, however, may be best remembered for his interest in the creative output of African Americans: through his support for its writers and performers, his financial assistance, and enthusiastic, insightful essays for mainstream publications, he served as an unofficial publicist for the cultural movement that came to be known as the Harlem Renaissance.Carl Van Vechten was born in 1880 in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, into a prosperous and politically liberal family. He was tall and awkward in stature, and gifted with an above-average intelligence. Van Vechten stood out from his Midwestern peers in several ways and would later reflect upon Cedar Rapids and its mores …showed first 150 words…
…showed last 150 words…died in his sleep on December 21, 1964, and his ashes were scattered in Central Park's Shakespeare Gardens. Examples of Van Vechten's best photographic work were assembled and published in the 1978 volume Portraits: The Photography of Carl Van Vechten, and "Keep A-Inchin' Along": Selected Writings of Carl Van Vechten about Black Art and Letters, a collection of his work about African-American culture, was published in 1979. Further Reading Bernard, Emily, ed., Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Huges and Carl Van Vechten, 1925-1964, Knopf, 2001.Contemporary Literary Criticism, Volume 33, Gale, 1985.Dictionary of Literary Biography, Volume 51: Afro-American Writers from the Harlem Renaissance to 1940, Gale, 1987.Gay & Lesbian Biography, Gale, 1997.Kellner, Bruce, Carl Van Vechten and the Irreverent Decades, University of Oklahoma Press, 1968.Lawrence, D.H., Phoenix: The Posthumous Papers of D.H. Lawrence, edited by Edward D. McDonald, 1936, reprinted by William Heinemann, 1961.Lueders, Edward, Carl Van Vechten, Twayne, 1965.Crisis, December, 1926, pp. 81-82.Opportunity, October, 1926, pp. 316-317, 330. |