Carl Van Vechten
Born June 17, 1880
Cedar Rapids, Iowa
Died December 21, 1964
New York, New York
American literary and music critic, novelist, photographer, and patron of the Harlem Renaissance
"Like Van Vechten, start inspectin'..."
From Andy Razaf's hit 1930 song, "Go Harlem"
Although he is most famous as a participant in the Harlem Renaissance and a white supporter of the period's black writers, artists, and performers, Carl Van Vechten had a lifelong interest in African American culture. A literary and music critic, he wrote numerous reviews of black-authored books and plays, as well as essays designed to introduce the artistic achievements of African Americans to a wider (white) audience. Even though some critics have questioned the motives behind his active role in the Harlem Renaissance (it has been said that he and other white patrons benefited more, psychologically and materially, than the artists they supported), most have agreed that his participation was important. Van Vechten's closest black friend, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) leader and writer James Weldon Johnson (1871–1938), went so far as to write in a letter to Van Vechten: "Has anyone ever written it down—in black and white—that you have been one of the most vital forces in bringing about the artistic emergence of the Negro in America?"
An Early Appreciation for Black Culture
Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Van Vechten was raised in a family that respected and sympathized with black people, an attitude not at all common among whites in the late nineteenth century.
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