ABSTRACT
In the spring of 1925, Carl Van Vechten was ready to begin his delineation of Negro life in Harlem. The publication of three successful novels in the three years following the appearance of Peter Whiffle, had established him as an interpreter and as a historian of the Jazz Age. In August 1926, Nigger Heaven was made available to the waiting public, who bought over 100,000 copies for which Van Vechten received 68,000 dollars. The Negro intelligentsia, who as a class represent the members of the Negro Renaissance, is shown by the novel to be the group most deeply affected by the pressures of prejudice. The Negroes instituted the cabaret which provided music and entertainment in an intimate atmosphere, and whites were permitted in them only when introduced by black friends. The prophecy made by Time magazine, that Vail Vechten would lose his Negro friends because of the novel, was conspicuously erroneous.
