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This monumental collection of correspondence between Gertrude Stein
and critic, novelist, and photographer Carl Van Vechten provides
crucial insight into Stein's life, art, and artistic milieu as well
as Van Vechten's support of major cultural projects, such as the
Harlem Renaissance. From their first meeting in 1913, Stein and Van
Vechten formed a unique and powerful relationship, and Van Vechten
worked vigorously to publish and promote Stein's work. Existing
biographies of Stein-including her own autobiographical
writings-omit a great deal about her experiences and thought. They
lack the ordinary detail of what Stein called "daily everyday
living": the immediate concerns, objects, people, and places that
were the grist for her writing. These letters not only vividly
represent those details but also showcase Stein and Van Vechten's
private selves as writers. Edward Burns's extensive annotations
include detailed cross-referencing of source materials.
Firecrackers: A Realistic Novel (1925) is a novel by Carl Van
Vechten. Published in the same year as F. Scott Fitzgerald's The
Great Gatsby and Anita Loos' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Van
Vechten's novel has been recognized as an important document of the
Jazz Age, a decade of bohemian excess and artistic experimentation
that changed the shape of American and European culture. "You must
think of a group of people in terms of a packet of firecrackers.
You ignite the first cracker and the flash fires the fuse of the
second, and so on, until, after a series of crackling detonations,
the whole bunch has exploded, and nothing survives but a few torn
and scattered bits of paper, blackened with powder." In Van
Vechten's novel, an explosive group of friends welcomes a handsome
young man into their midst. Gunnar O'Grady, an athlete and a jack
of all trades, soon becomes an object of obsession for men and
women alike. As he tries to satisfy their needs and desires while
working to support himself, he begins to question the meaning of
friendship itself. Firecrackers: A Realistic Novel, Van Vechten's
fourth novel, is a fascinating work of fiction from a man who was
always one step ahead of the rest. With a beautifully designed
cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Carl
Van Vechten's Firecrackers: A Realistic Novel is a classic of
American literature reimagined for modern readers.
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Peter Whiffle (Hardcover)
Carl Van Vechten; Contributions by Mint Editions
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R491
R402
Discovery Miles 4 020
Save R89 (18%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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Peter Whiffle (1922) is a novel by Carl Van Vechten. Framing
himself as his character's literary executor, Van Vechten provides
a satirical self portrait of his unusual life in the arts through
the lens of a man whose sole gift is to identify and move with the
avant-garde. Peter Whiffle is a writer who never writes. Throughout
his travels, he claims to be researching for an important work of
literature but mostly provides humorous portraits of some of the
greatest artists, dancers, and writers of his time. In this way, he
proves himself much more of a mirror than a window-like Van Vechten
likely sensed of his own writing, Whiffle is a man who reflects the
success and genius of others much more than he offers his own.
Travelling between New York City and Europe, Whiffle becomes a
figure who defines his generation through keen wit and
tongue-in-cheek wisdom, a tour guide to a vast land of cultural
creation and bohemian excess. Peter Whiffle, Van Vechten's debut
novel, is a fascinating work of fiction from a man who was always
one step ahead of the rest. With a beautifully designed cover and
professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Carl Van
Vechten's Peter Whiffle is a classic of American literature
reimagined for modern readers.
Firecrackers: A Realistic Novel (1925) is a novel by Carl Van
Vechten. Published in the same year as F. Scott Fitzgerald's The
Great Gatsby and Anita Loos' Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, Van
Vechten's novel has been recognized as an important document of the
Jazz Age, a decade of bohemian excess and artistic experimentation
that changed the shape of American and European culture. "You must
think of a group of people in terms of a packet of firecrackers.
You ignite the first cracker and the flash fires the fuse of the
second, and so on, until, after a series of crackling detonations,
the whole bunch has exploded, and nothing survives but a few torn
and scattered bits of paper, blackened with powder." In Van
Vechten's novel, an explosive group of friends welcomes a handsome
young man into their midst. Gunnar O'Grady, an athlete and a jack
of all trades, soon becomes an object of obsession for men and
women alike. As he tries to satisfy their needs and desires while
working to support himself, he begins to question the meaning of
friendship itself. Firecrackers: A Realistic Novel, Van Vechten's
fourth novel, is a fascinating work of fiction from a man who was
always one step ahead of the rest. With a beautifully designed
cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Carl
Van Vechten's Firecrackers: A Realistic Novel is a classic of
American literature reimagined for modern readers.
|
Peter Whiffle (Paperback)
Carl Van Vechten; Contributions by Mint Editions
|
R255
R215
Discovery Miles 2 150
Save R40 (16%)
|
Ships in 10 - 15 working days
|
Peter Whiffle (1922) is a novel by Carl Van Vechten. Framing
himself as his character's literary executor, Van Vechten provides
a satirical self portrait of his unusual life in the arts through
the lens of a man whose sole gift is to identify and move with the
avant-garde. Peter Whiffle is a writer who never writes. Throughout
his travels, he claims to be researching for an important work of
literature but mostly provides humorous portraits of some of the
greatest artists, dancers, and writers of his time. In this way, he
proves himself much more of a mirror than a window-like Van Vechten
likely sensed of his own writing, Whiffle is a man who reflects the
success and genius of others much more than he offers his own.
Travelling between New York City and Europe, Whiffle becomes a
figure who defines his generation through keen wit and
tongue-in-cheek wisdom, a tour guide to a vast land of cultural
creation and bohemian excess. Peter Whiffle, Van Vechten's debut
novel, is a fascinating work of fiction from a man who was always
one step ahead of the rest. With a beautifully designed cover and
professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Carl Van
Vechten's Peter Whiffle is a classic of American literature
reimagined for modern readers.
No other contemporary novel received the volume and intensity of
criticism and curiosity that greeted Nigger Heaven upon its
publication in 1926. Carl Van Vechten's novel generated a storm of
controversy because of its scandalous title and fed an insatiable
hunger on the part of the reading public for material relating to
the black culture of Harlem's jazz clubs, cabarets, and social
events. "The book and not the title is the thing," James Weldon
Johnson insisted with regard to Nigger Heaven, and the book is
indeed a nuanced and vibrant portrait of "the great black walled
city" of Harlem. Opening on a scene of tawdry sensationalism,
Nigger Heaven shifts decisively to a world of black middle-class
respectability, defined by intellectual values, professional
ambition, and an acute consciousness of class and racial identity.
Here is a Harlem where upper-class elites discuss art in
well-appointed drawing rooms; rowdy and lascivious drunks spend
long nights in jazz clubs and speakeasies; and politically
conscious young intellectuals drink coffee and debate "the race
problem" in walk-up apartments. At the center of the story, two
young people--a quiet, serious librarian and a volatile aspiring
writer--struggle to love each other as their dreams are slowly
suffocated by racism. This reissue is based on the seventh
printing, which included poetry composed by Langston Hughes
especially for the book. Kathleen Pfeiffer's astute introduction
investigates the controversy surrounding the shocking title and
shows how the novel functioned in its time as a site to contest
racial violence. She also signals questions of racial authenticity
and racial identity raised by a novel about black culture written
by a white admirer of that culture.
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