Van Vechten, Carl, 1880-1964

Carl Van Vechten was an American novelist, critic, essayist, book collector, and photographer.

Carl van Vechten (1880-1964) was an American photographer, writer, and graduate of the University of Chicago. A music and dance critic for the New York Times, he was also a patron for many of the most prominent members of the Harlem Renaissance, including Langston Hughes and Richard Wright. It was in the 1930s, after nearly 25 years in New York that he began taking portrait photographs. Among his subjects were Aaron Copland, Philip Johnson, Georgia O'Keefe, Diego Rivera, Gertrude Stein, and Alfred Stieglitz (photographs of all of whom are included in the collection here). When Gertrude Stein died, van Vechten became her literary executor, bringing into print many of her unpublished works. Van Vechten's papers are now held by the Bieneke at Yale University.

Writer, critic.

Aldous Huxley was a British novelist, short-story writer, playwright, screenwriter, literary and social critic, and poet.

Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) was an American novelist and photographer, with an interest in the artists of the Harlem Renaissance.

Photographer, critic, translator, editor and author.

Carl van Vechten (1880-1964) was an American photographer, writer, and graduate of the University of Chicago. A music and dance critic for the New York Times, he was also a patron for many of the most prominent members of the Harlem Renaissance, including Langston Hughes and Richard Wright. It was in the 1930s, after nearly 25 years in New York that he began taking portrait photographs. Among his subjects were Aaron Copland, Philip Johnson,, Georgia O’Keefe, Diego Rivera, Gertrude Stein, and Alfred Stieglitz (photographs of all of whom are included in the collection here). When Gertrude Stein died, van Vechten became her literary executor, bringing into print many of her unpublished works. Van Vechten’s papers are now held by the Bieneke at Yale University.

Carl Van Vechten was born on June 17, 1880, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. At an early age, he developed an interest in music and theatre that he found hard to satisfy in his hometown. He left Iowa in 1899 to attend the University of Chicago. In Chicago he was able to explore art, music, and opera. He became interested in writing and contributed to the University of Chicago Weekly. After college, Van Vechten's first job was with the Chicago American. In addition to covering a broad range of topics, he was occasionally asked to provide photographs to go along with his copy. In 1906, when Van Vechten moved to New York City, he was hired as the assistant music critic at the New York Times. His interest in opera prompted him to take a leave of absence from the Times in 1907, to examine this art form in Europe. While in England he married his long-time friend from Cedar Rapids, Ann Snyder. The marriage would end in divorce in 1912. Van Vechten returned to his job at the New York Times in 1909 and soon became the first American critic of modern dance. At that time, Isadora Duncan, Anna Pavlova, and Loie Fuller were performing in New York. In 1914, Van Vechten married actress Fania Marinoff. He left his full time newspaper job in the spring, but he continued to write, and published several collections of his essays relating to music, ballet, and cats. Peter Whiffle: His Life and Works, Van Vechten's first novel, was published in 1922. Van Vechten became very interested in promoting black artists and writers. He was an avid collector of ephemera and books pertaining to black arts and letters, and was a frequent visitor to Harlem. These experiences provided the inspiration for his controversial novel, Nigger Heaven, which was published in 1926. In the future, he would photograph many of the creative people he met in Harlem. In the early 1930s Miguel Covarrubias introduced Van Vechten to the 35 mm Leica camera. He began photographing his large circle of friends and acquaintances. His earlier career as a writer and his wife's experience as an actress provided him with access to both fledgling artists and established cultural figures of the time. Some of his subjects from this period include F. Scott Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes, Alfred A. Knopf, Bessie Smith, and Gertrude Stein. Van Vechten's portraits are frequently busts or half-length poses in front of bold backdrops. Dancers were usually photographed on stage. Van Vechten did his own darkroom work, but frequently used an assistant to help set up lights for portrait sittings. During World War II Van Vechten volunteered at the Stage Door Canteen. Top-notch entertainers frequently performed there for servicemen. Van Vechten's photographs have been widely exhibited and frequently used as illustrations in books and magazines. He felt very strongly that his collections of manuscripts, letters, clippings, programs, and photographs, many pertaining to creative blacks, should be available for scholarly research. With this in mind, he presented various parts of his collections to several university libraries during his lifetime. Van Vechten remained active, writing and photographing up until his death in 1961.

Iowa-born American novelist and critic of music and drama.

Van Vechten was an American writer and photographer, associated with the writers of the Harlem Renaissance; he was the literary executor of Gertrude Stein.

Carl Van Vechten was an important and famous American photographer who chronicled the first half of the 20th century including notable artists, intellectuals and African Americans.

Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) was a writer, promoter of African-American artists during the Harlem Renaissance, patron of the arts, and photographer. After he graduated from the University of Chicago in 1930, he entered upon a career as a reporter for newspapers that included The American in Chicago and within a few years The New York Times. At the latter he served as an overseas correspondent in Paris and subsequently as an assistant to the music critic Richard Aldrich in New York City. Van Vechten moved to New York City in 1906 with his first wife Anna Elizabeth Snyder, a teacher. After his divorce in 1912, Van Vechten met and married the stage actress Fania Marinoff. Marinoff made her stage debut at the age of eight in a stock company, and eventually developed a successful stage career. Van Vechten's novels include The Blind-Bow Boy, Interpreters and Interpretations, Nigger Heaven, Peter Whiffle, Tiger By the Tail, and The Tattooed Countess. Van Vechten promoted the careers of many authors' works by writing introductions to their monographs. In his second successful career as a photographer, he had the opportunity to photograph, and to have himself photographed, with many literary figures, stage and screen stars and others.

Photographer, critic, author.

Carl van Vechten was born in Iowa and graduated from the University of Chicago. He moved to New York to pursue a career in journalism, becoming music and style critic for the New York Times and publishing essays on a variety of arts, promoting the intellectualism that came to characterize American culture in the 1920s. Influential and successful, he later devoted himself to creative writing, publishing several novels that reflected his glib, eclectic, observative persona. He subsequently became a photographer, and worked to promote the works of Gertrude Stein, among others.

American author, fine arts critic, photographer, bibliophile, and philanthropist.

Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) was a writer, promoter of African-American artists during the Harlem Renaissance, patron of the arts, and photographer.

After he graduated from the University of Chicago in 1930, he entered upon a career as a reporter for newspapers that included The American in Chicago and within a few years The New York Times. At the latter he served as an overseas correspondent in Paris and subsequently as an assistant to the music critic Richard Aldrich in New York City. Van Vechten moved to New York City in 1906 with his first wife Anna Elizabeth Snyder, a teacher. After his divorce in 1912, Van Vechten met and married the stage actress Fania Marinoff. Marinoff made her stage debut at the age of eight in a stock company, and eventually developed a successful stage career. Van Vechten's novels include The Blind-Bow Boy, Interpreters and Interpretations, Nigger Heaven, Peter Whiffle, Tiger By the Tail, and The Tattooed Countess. Van Vechten promoted the careers of many authors' works by writing introductions to their monographs. In his second successful career as a photographer, he had the opportunity to photograph, and to have himself photographed, with many literary figures, stage and screen stars and others.