ABSTRACT
In 1905, Carl Van Vechten wrote an article covering a horse show in a manner that offended the wife of the business manager of the American. As an adolescent, Carl Van Vechten's appearance, behavior, and artistic interests set him apart from other Cedar Rapids teen-agers. While vacationing in Europe in the spring of 1907, on money borrowed from his father, Van Vechten married Anna Snyder, a former high school companion. At the age of forty-one, Van Vechten had achieved his youthful desire to be at the center of the art world and a participant in its life, but he still had not achieved popular success. The reflection of Van Vechten's personality in his writing style and his passion for the discovery and the delineation of the contemporary were particularly suited to express the new spirit of the Twenties. Like many other personal interests and experiences in Van Vechten's life, his acquaintance with Negroes found expression in his writing.
