CARL VAN VECHTEN - TYPED LETTER SIGNED 07/11/1963 - HFSID 175128
Sale Price $250.00
Reg. $320.00
CARL VAN VECHTEN
He signs a typed 1963 letter, declining to write an article and giving reasons.
Typed Letter signed: "Carl Van Vechten", 1 page, 5¾x7½. New York, N.Y., 11 July 1963.
On personal letterhead to "Dear Mr. Marcus". In full: "Much as I would like to accede to your
request, I fear I must refuse. It is at least forty years since I have seen Jim or read him. He never
was an intimate friend and I haven't read Schwab's book. It would require two or three months of
hard digging to write this article: frankly I haven't the time, but thank you for asking me.
Sincerely". Carl Van Vechten (1880-1964) was a writer, music and dance critic, and portrait
photographer who joined the staff of the New York Times in 1906. he published several
collections of essays and 7 novels. He was an avid promoter of the black artists and
intellectuals represented in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s, but his best-selling
novel [Explicit] Heaven (1926) proved controversial, for its portrayal of Harlem life as well
as for its title. From the 1930s onward, Van Vechten's primary interest was in photography;
many literary and artistic figures posed for his camera. His longtime friend Gertrude Stein,
for whom he became literary executor, said that "… having your photograph taken by
Carl Van Vechten was a sure sign that you were 'somebody'." Fold crease through
signature. Fine condition.
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