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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.
COPYRIGHT r9M, BY Alt r ignis resefved PRINTED Itf THK UNITED
SXATSfl OF AMERICA To my Father Contents PAGE Music AND BAD MANNERS
11 Music FOR THE MOVIES 4 SPAIN AND Music t SHALL WE REALIZE
WAGNERS IDEALS 165 THE BRIDGE BURNERS 169 A NEW PRINCIPLE IN Music
217 LEO ORNSTEIN Music and Bad Manners Music and Bad Manners
SINGERS, musicians of all kinds, are notori ously bad mannered. The
storms of the Titan, Beethoven, the petty malevolences of Richard
Wagner, the weak sulkiness of Chopin Chopin in displeasure was
appalling, writes George Sand, and as with me he always con trolled
himself it was as if he might die of suffoca tion have all been
recalled in their proper places in biographies and in fiction but
no attempt has been made heretofore, so far as I am aware, to lump
similar anecdotes together under the some what castigating title I
have chosen to head this article. Nor is it alone the performer who
gives exhibitions of bad manners. As a matter of fact, once an
artist reaches the platform he is on his mettle, at his best. At
home he or she may be ruthless in his passionate display of floods
of temperament, I have seen a soprano throw a pork roast on the
floor at dinner, the day before a performance of Wagners consecra
tional festival play, with the shrill explanation, Pork before
Parsifal On the street he may shatter the clouds with his
lightnings as, indeed, Beethoven is said to have done but on the
stage he becomes, as a rule, a superhuman being, an in Music and
Bad Manners terpreter, a mere virtuoso. Of course, there are
exceptions. Audiences, as well, may be relied upon to behave badly
on occasion. An auditor is not necessarily at his best in the
concert hall. He may have had abad dinner, or quarrelled with his
wife before arriving. At any rate he has paid his money and it
might be expected that he would make some demonstration of
disapproval when he was displeased. The extraordinary thing is that
he does not do so oftener. On the whole it must be admitted that
audiences remain unduly calm at concerts, that they are
unreasonably polite, in deed, to offensively inadequate or
downright bad interpretations. I have sat through perform ances,
for example, of the Russian Symphony So ciety in New York when I
wondered how my fel low-sufferers could display such fortitude and
patience. When Prince Igor was first performed at the Metropolitan
Opera House the ballet, danced in defiance of all laws of common
sense or beauty, almost compelled me to throw the first stone. The
parable saved me. Still one doesnt need to be without sin to sling
pebbles in an opera house. And it is a pleasure to remember that
there have been occasions when audiences did speak up In those
immeasurably sad pages in which 12
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