ABSTRACT
Willa Cather, Gertrude Stein, and Nella Larsen all showed a sustained interest in how “geography, migration, and identity” (Yohe 1) converge to shape human experience. Although the three writers are generally studied within the rubric of distinct and nonoverlapping sub-fields, all three moved in intersecting personal and professional circles. To begin with, author and photographer Carl Van Vechten, who introduced many of his friends to one another, sustained a long-term friendship with each woman. Mabel Dodge sent Van Vechten to Stein with a letter of introduction 1913, and the ensuing relationship lasted until Stein’s death, with Van Vechten acting as literary agent as well as personal champion.1 Van Vechten also praised Cather’s work and the two had a friendly relationship from 1912 at least through the mid-1930s, when Cather finally allowed Van Vechten to photograph her. Van Vechten photographed Larsen, as well, along with being a close friend and literary mentor from 1923 to Larsen’s virtual disappearance from the literary and social scene following her husbands death in 1941. He discussed Stein’s work with Larsen and tried to interest his publisher, Knopf, in both Stein’s and Larsen’s work. Along with publishing both Quicksand and Passing in 1928 and 1929, respectively, Knopf became Cather’s friend and publisher in 1920 and served in both capacities until the end of Cather’s life.
