Saturday, February 22, 2014

The latest from the front lines of literature

Work in Progress: The Latest from the Front Lines of Literature
Transfixed by Celebrity
The Portraits of Carl Van Vechten
Edward White
Carl Van Vechten was a polymath unparalleled in the history of American arts. Born in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in 1880, he was, at various times, the nation's most incisive and far-seeing arts critic who promoted names as diverse as Gertrude Stein and Bessie Smith long before it was popular to do so; a notorious socialite who held legendary parties; a de facto publicist for great forgotten names including Herman Melville; a best-selling author of scandalous novels; and one of the most important champions of African-American literature, vital in advancing the careers of Langston Hughes, Nella Larsen, and Chester Himes.

In the early 1930s he fixed upon another reinvention when he took up photography, a pastime that swiftly became an all-consuming passion. Turning unused space in his sumptuous midtown Manhattan apartment into a makeshift studio, Van Vechten, for the last thirty years of his life, shot thousands of portraits of brilliant and beautiful cultural figures who had helped define the first half of the American Century, from Bill "Bojangles" Robinson to Truman Capote.

Read on...
"The first time I read..."
Michelle Huneven
Book Keeping
The first time I read The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James I was fifteen years old. And Isabel Archer, so barely formed herself, became a major formative part of my literary life.

To a young, precocious teenager, Isabel's arrival in England seemed like a beautiful, verdant dream. To step out onto the vast lawn and be greeted by an adorable terrier and three appreciative men - one an English Lord! - and to be deemed interesting . . . why, I could imagine nothing finer. Ah, to be interesting! Interesting!

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