In her memoir of the literary 1920s, Emily Clark referred to Carl Van Vechten as the most successful New Yorker of her acquaintance. "One of Carl's gifts," she wrote, "is to be a complete and satisfied New Yorker without the boredom usually considered an essential part of that role. For him, Manhattan never loses its Arabian Nights glamor, and all the hanging gardens of Babylon are in its skyline." Her observation remained appropriate through the six decades of Van Vechten's close association with the artistic life of New York City and his wide personal acquaintance with its artists, entertainers, and celebrities.

Yet, like so many literary figures in the early years of twentieth-century American letters, Van Vechten was a transplanted midwesterner. He was born and raised in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, the son of Charles Duane and Ada Amanda Fitch Van Vechten, a late and much indulged third child...