Carl
Van
the
Vechten
Harlem
The
:
His
Role
Renaissance
Literary
Salon----Hisao
It is difficult to accurately
:alias the
:ment but an extraordinarily
with
define the
Negro Renaissance,
Harlem
in
Kishimoto
so called Harlem
Renaissance,
because it was not merely a literary moveexciting general cultural movement
as it center.
The
Harlem Renaissance
:from many points of view, but basically,
that arose
can be approached
a conglomeration
of six factors
are responsible for its emergence : the Negro vogue in the world ; second,
the birth of a black intelligentsia ; third,
the Great Migration
and World
vVar I ; fourth, the New Negro Movement ; fifth, the Jazz Age; and sixth,
the relationship
between black and white intellectuals.
Considering the American social conditions before 1920, relationship
-bet
ween black and white intellectuals were rare. By 1920, however, these
_relationships
had changed
and expanded
:.seriously and sympathetically
ras Eugene
O'Neill's
Emperor
Wings (1924) ; Waldo Frank's
and
naturally,
white
writers
described the black situation in such works
Jones (1920) and All God's Chillum
Holiday
(1923) ; Dubose Heyward's
Got
Porgy
<1925) ; Carl Van Vechten's Nigger Heaven (1926) ; and E.C.L. Adams'
,Congaree Sketches (1927) and Nigger to Nigger (1928) . Thus, closer and
more
expansive
relations
between
black
and
white
intellectuals
were
formed.
George S. Schuyler, the author of Black No More (1931), was a disciple
-~- 67 ---
of H. L. Mencken, and his writing reflected his literary debt to that impor-tant
literary
McKay,
a prominent
terrible,"
erator
personage.
made
The
Jamaican-born
figure in the Harlem
a lot of friends
Zora Neale Hurston
of the Harlem
Renaissance,
mentioned;
role.
at
Home (1937).
in that
there
During
he associated._
have been only a few-
home and abraod, especially, from theIn the general
only his name and novel,
Quite recently, . however,
Lib-
and assisted them.
Renaissance.
no one paid much
the New Negro"
with the
A Long Way from
until the present
essays on Carl Van Vechten
Harlem
Claude_.
called "l'enf ant;
his association
role was unique
of black intellectuals
It is safe to say that
viewpoint
novelist,
owed not a few white persons a great deal.
these days, Carl Van Vechten's
with a multitude
Renaissance.
through
according to his autobiography,
poet and
studies
Nigger
on the-
Heaven,
were
attention
or devoted much space to his,
two essays,
"Carl Van Vechten Presents.
in Studies in the Literary
Imagination
(Georgia State-
University, 1974) by Leon Coleman and "Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem.
Renaissance"
in Negro American
bling, were published.
portance;
Literature
Forum
These recent essays testify to Van Vechten's
and paticularly from the viewpoint
Van- Vechten
(1976) by Mark Hel--
must be reconsidered
of the Harlem
im-
Renaissance,.
as a significant literary figure.
Van_
Vechten said the following in his oral history of Columbia University :
It was almost following
the publication
began to get violently interested
because
it was almost
in Negroes.
an addiction.
of Peter
Whiffle
that I'
I would say violently,_
I had been brought
up to be-
very respectful to Negroes.1)
Naturally,
in Negroes.
there was a basis for Carl Van Vechten's
His parents were cosmopolitan
— 68 —
being interested'.
and humanistic.
At a time:
-when black people had only a rare chance to go to school
was co-founder
sippi.
of the Piney Woods School for black children in Missis-
Moreover,
woman's
, his father
his mother's
friend Lucy Stone, was an adovocate
suffrage, and his mother was under her influence.
of
She was re-
sponsible for the public library in her town, raising the sum required by
'Carnegie before
he would build a library
•city government
sufficient income for its continued support.
basic attitude
his father,
toward
and securing
from state and
Van Vechten's
blacks was one of respect, partly learned through
who addressed all blacks,
including
the laundryman
and the
man who cut the grass, as Mr. or Mrs. 2) Needless to say, his father's
activities and attitude toward black people affected the young Van Vechten
strongly,
though
his actual association with black people was rare in his
youth.
Carl Van Vechten's
in Chicago,
where
association with black people began at a nightclub
he became acquainted
known as Carrie Washington)
,singer.
who
with Carita Day" (previously
later became quite
a celebrity
as a
He would often dance with her and reminisced that :
Nobody in Chicago and afterwards
in Nevt York had any objection
to dancing with Negroes at that epoch.
I don't
probably because I never asked them whether
understand
it.
It's
or not they did object.
This Ixas hem een 1903 and 1910. She was a Negro and her husband
was a Negro.
She was obviously a Negro although
she wasn't very
dark but she was handsome.4j
When Van Vechten moved to New York in 1906 and became a music
,critic for the New York Times and Broadway
Magazine , he naturally
_.many actors, actresses, singers and dancers . Bert Williams,
met
a singer and
.actor who usually appeared in the Ziegfield Follies, became Van Vechten's
-
69 -
black friend and remained his good friend even after he became very popular
and successful.
So Van Vecten's
"violent interest
twenties did not really occur all that suddenly.
been laid through
in the-
The foundation had already-
these early friendships.
After Alfred A. Knopf published Van Vechten's
e
in Negroes"
in 1922, he published Walter White's
novel, Peter
first novel,
Whiffle
The Fire in the Flint,
a story about Atlanta riots, in 1924. Van Vechten was very interested
the book and asked Knopf to introduce him to White.
White became friends,5) and White subsequently
in
Thus, Van Vechten
introduced Van Vech-
ten to many other blacks.
A week or so after their first meeting, White introduced
Weldon
Johnson,
who was to become a life long friend.
White took him to a N. A. A. C. P. fund-raising
Rhone's
Club, where
Neale Hurston,
Wallace Thurman,
George Schuyler.
....
Walter
lunches,
he met Langston
him to James..
Johnson
and
dance party at the Happy-
Hughes,
Jessie Fauset,
Countee
Rudolph
Cullen,
Fisher,
Zora_
and.
Van Vechten noted :
was very good to me.
to dinners,
every educated
and so forth,
person
in Harlem.
He asked me to parties,
and in about two weeks I knewI knew
from Paul Robeson to—well, Joe Louis didn't
known him too, but that's
them
by the
exist at that
hundreds..
time ; I_
later.6)
After meeting Langston Hughes,
first book of poetry,
to,
Weary Blues,
Van Vechten helped him publish
and wrote the introduction.
hisy
Hughes
said in his autobiography :
What Carl Van Vechten did for me was to submit my first book of
of poems to Alfred A. Konpf, put me in contact with the editors of
-
70 -
Vanity Fair, who bought my first poems sold to a magazine, caused
me to meet many editors and writers who were friendly and helpful
to me, encouraged me in my writing of my first short stories, and
otherwise aided in making . life for me more profitable and enter-.
tainin.g.8
The N. A. A. C. P. party Carl Van Vechten . attended was of singular
importance to him, as well as to the blacks, since it marked the turning
point of a drastic change in his focus and activities.
He became a vital
link for young poets and novelists who had no connections with white
publishers, and parhaps, even more importantly, an understanding and
compassionate intermediary between white and black people. Johnson
describes Van Vechten's efforts and attitude in his autobiography, Along
This Way :
Carl Van Vechten had a warm interest in colored people before he
ever saw Harlem.
In the early days of the Negro literary and
artistic movement, no . one in the country did more to forward it than
he accomplished in frequent magazine articles and by his many personal efforts in behalf of individual Negro writers and artists.
Indeed,
his regard f or Negroes as a race is so close to being an affectionate
one, that he constantly joked about it by his most intimate friends."
Van Vechten's
principal contribution toward race relations, however,
was in arranging for blacks and whites get to know each other at his
salon parties.
This literary salon, modeled after Mabel Dodge Luhan's
earlier endeavor, provided a warm, free atmosphere in which artists and
intellectuals could break down their prejudices.
At the same time Van Vechten was entertainining at his salon, there
--- 71
--
were other parties
most important
to which
of these gatherings
which were not exclusively
Jessie Fauset,
celebrities,
there
Gordon,
also.
subway
and the literary
Langston
was a curious
bankers
Hughes,
and
"stock
mixture
with
Aaron Douglas,
and Van Vechten
At Jessie Fauset's
Charles S. Johnson,
of
would usually be
as the New York
parties,
and Langston
Most of her parties were held exclusively
racketeers",
Muriel Draper,
but she was always prepared
some drink.
parties
of black and
exchange
Her parties, it is said, were as crowded
hour,
The
of the Herlem Renaissance.")
and Countee Cullen, Witter Bynner,
at the rush
elbowing
there
numerous
poets and novelists;
Taylor
for intellectuals,
get-togethers,
were invited.
were the parties, of A'Lelia Walker,"
one of the black novelists
At A'Lelia's
white
the black intelligentsia
to enliven the
Walter White,
Hughes would attend.
for black people, and the few
that were not were open only to very distinguished
whites.
While her
literary parties were unique and valuable because black people there could
speak about everything
to the limitation
There
in an invigorating
atomsphere,
they were chained
of being held mostly for blacks.
were ' two important
factors
about
Van Vechten's
parties : one,
was the mutual association of black and white people ; two, was the breakdown of prejudice.
place where
party
In the 1920's, considering
black people could associate with white people, this kind of
was rare
and valuable
for both
against black people was rampant,
was vigorously
races.
At that
time prejudice
and the practice of strict segregation
pursued even in New York, which was considered to be a
fairly free city for black people.
was a Jim Crow club.
Wings was performed
prohibited
the fact that there was no
When
Even the famous Cotton Club in Harlem
Eugene
in Manhattan
O'Neill's
in 1924, the
All God's Chillun
Mayor
Got
of New York
white and black children from appearing together on the stage.
-
72
Furthermore,
it was very difficult
for blacks
to get tickets
to the theater,
and many restaurants
also shut their doors on blacks.
"Everybody
told me th
at Harlem was very dangerous,'"
later
said.
f riends'
Despite
the
social
advice, Van Vechten
situation
continued
of
those
going
Van Vechten
years
and
to the nightclubs
his white
and enjoy-
ing life in Harlem.
In 1924 Van Vechten
West
Fifty-fifth
Street.
he had become
wealthy.
Vechten
/cantly,
many
dared
decided to move
In
gave
well-known
a
whites.
lowing
passage
clearly
party
other
There
were plenty
gather
poetry.
people
too.
Langston
At
another
Hughes
Mr.
And when
politan
Opera
D'Alvarez,
but,
time,
Van
Vechten's
painters,
enjoy
it seems
Van
arose
and
sang
liking her voice,
--
talking,
parties,
Margarita
an aria.
she went
73 --
black
The
fol-
his parties :
parties,
I
snobbish.
there.12)
talented
people
and writers
singing,
Bessie
Smith
Smith
up to her
and
to
would
reading
:
D'Alvarez
Bessie
of young
very
in his autobiography
Vechten's
she finished,
editors,
invited
given
very,
to introduce
dancing,
also
all-colored
people
Van
been
about
gave
sculptors,
reminisced
but
and
Signifi-
celebrities.
attitude
white
novels
had never
white
on 150
apartment.
particularly
I never
Otherwise
three
blacks
blacks
with
determination
and
blues.
for
of very well-known
actors , actresses,
parties
exculsively
all colored,
of his unshakable
at his
apartment
neighborhood,
salon at this new
acquainted
shows
wasn't
asked
upper-class
It was the chance,
and poets to became
Peach other,
of the
Up to that
writers
Because
spite
party
this kind of opportunity.
The
a small
By this time he had published
to open his literary
he never
from
sang
of the
the
Metro-
did not know
when
she
had
ceased and cried :
"Don't
let nobody tell you you can't sing ! "
Carl Van Vechten and A'Lelia Walker were great
each of their . parties
many
of the same
but more writers were present
people
friends,
were to be seen,
at Carl Van Vechten's.
At cocktail
time, or in the evening, I first met at his house Somerset
Hugh
Walpole,
Clark, William
Fannie
Seabrook,
Hurst,
Witter
Arthur
Bynner,
Davison
and at
Isa
Maugham,
Glenn,
Emily
Ficke, Louis Untermeyer,
and George Sylvester Viereck.'3)
It was characteristic
that the white
fluence upon the white population;
to writers
and poets.
guests
were persons
who had in-
the black guests ranged
from porters,
As an ex-musical critic turned well-known
writer,
Van Vechten had many friends, which was a great help in giving parties.
Through
judice.
his parties he succeeded in breaking down some barriers of preHe never used oppressive
means
to do so, however.
A little-
known fact, for example, is that at the end of one party William
ner badgered
Vechten
never
Van Vechten
finally did, though
used black people
think of people as Negroes.
won him the further
into
taking
against
him
his will.
for propaganda
to Harlem,
Moreover,
purposes. ' He
Faulk-
which
Van
Van
Vechten
said "I
never
I think of them as friends. " 14) His attitude
trust of many blacks and whites as well, and as a
result, his parties were packed to the ceiling.
His method of breaking
down prejudice was unique for his day :
I never tried to get anybody to stop hating Negroes. If they want
to, it's their business, but it's damned silly.
like that.
You can't change people
They sometimes change; one girl I know, and still . I know
now, was so bitter about Negroes, I can't tell you ; and I didn't do
anything except invite her to my house occasionally when there were
--74-
Negroes
here.
Gradually,
she changed,
and one night there was a
Negro here who simply captivated her, because he was so extraordinary.
Then she become very interested
in George Schuyler because George
Schuyler is no fool and can talk.
Now she receives
Negroes
at her
house and goes to their houses.1s'
Through
this association with black writers,
talents, white people became interested
ciaton of their potentialities
had a revolutionary
in blacks and developed an appre-
and contributions.
people.
days "reconciliatory"
On the surface,
for being
really implied
his behavior
unswerving
that he must contribute
him.
Van Vechten's
small torch
ten's
achievements
Willi Muenzenberg
what
parties,
weak-willed
his actions
signified
and
the best means available to
enlightened
both races
One of the people who used
George Schuyler,
as revolutionary
but in
must be eliminated
of humanism
during the days of the Harlem Renaissance.
to go to Van Vechten's
have seemed
belief that prejudice
to this cause through
reconciliatory,
To be
blind obedience to white
might
and impotent to some people, but in actuality
was a steady,
In this sense, his parties
impact unlike the other parties of those days.
sure, his way might now be denounced
the those
poets, and people of various
and compared
described
them
Van Vech-
with
those
of
in Germany :
With far different objectives but similar
techniques,
Van Vechfen
won over the same class in this country to acceptance of the Negro
and appreciation
of his potentialities
were the minority
and contributions.
that tell the majority what to think,
and hear, and they have multiplied tremendously
century.
It has now become
and appreciative
His disciples
interracially,
smart
--
see
in the past quarter
to be tolerant,
and if any one person
---- 75
wear,
understanding
can be credited.
with bringing
not
have
about
equality
this revolution
unless
it is desired,
less the idea is first accepted,
until
it first happens
Van Vechten
with
flowers.
While
Vechten
take.
Filling
novelists
glasses
to white
in the guests,
phere.
sideration,
:more.
and
celebrities.
white
guests
Langston
Hughes
Carl Van
Vechten
ities.
But he lives them
giving
created
atmosphere
began
parties,
and
going
bottom
from
modest
introduced
aroused
smiles,
black
moderate
Van
to parpoets
atmos-
and mutual
black
and
seriousness
and congenial
of friendliness
appreciating
person
honey from
who wished
a comfortable
people
con-
more
and
out :
with
black
sincerity—and
a fetish
and
Vechten
of those qual-
humor.
were reported
writers
Van
He never talks grandiloquently
Nor makes
that is why his parties
interracial
he
sincerity
or Americanism.
to helping
un-
Fania .Marinoff, , dedicat-
for those
is like that party.
democracy
In addition
wife,
pretty
host,
His
pointed
about
Perhaps
her
playing
this natural
his
actress
liquid refreshment
and his homor
Through
at the
of zest just like two bees drawing
dispensed
gaily dispensed
will not happen
in a most active fashion,
the greatest
Fania
and it will not be desired
which
pretty
to his parties
-to person
You can-
at the top.")
and his tiny,
,ed themselves
it is Carl Van Vechten.
poets
in the Harlem
become
also helped
press.f 7)
published
black people
and
through
the N. A. A. C. P.
From the fact that Walter White opened the office of
-the midtown branch of the N . A. A. C. P. in the same building where the
Van
Vechtens
assistance.
Weldon
lived, we can
Furthermore,
Johnson,
like
imagine
at that
White,
the
time,
Van
was also
-
76 -
importance
Vechten's
a leading
of Van
Vechten's
best friend,
staff
member
James
of the
N. A. A. C. P.
The problems the N. A. A. C. P. brought
were varied.
His opinion
about
people was often
to Van Vechten_
solicited,
and some_.
times individual blacks brought him their problems through
the N. A. A.
C. P.
his role with.
It should be noted that Van Vechtenn
ever flaunted
the N. A. A. C. P., and even in his oral history
he doesn't
mention
his.
specific activities but merely suggests that he had a close connection with_
the group.
To the quetion, "what kind of problems did the N. A. A. C. P.
bring you ? " he answered.
I can't remember
important,
people.
now, because they were various
sometimes
Very often
unimportant.
they wanted
They
were
my opinion
and sometimes,
very
often
on certain
about.
men,
that
they were going to use in some way.18'
In the beginning
his love upon
of his long relationship
everyone
of them.
more correct appreciation
Soon,
of them.
with black people he lavished_
however,
One night
he came to have a.
he rushed
back to his
home from Harlem and told his wife in great glee that he finally hated..
a black person;
that is, at least he had found one black person he hated..
As a result of this, he felt completely emancipated.
It had nothing
he was a Negro.
to do with prejudice.
I didn't dislike
I disliked him for other reasons ...
they were now—perhaps
him becauseI forgot what
he was unkind to his mother or kicked his..
dog or something, I don't know.
But. I disliked him.
gotten who the man was, so I can't
only remember
He later remarked
describe
I've even for-
the feeling really.
I-.
coming home and saying, " at last I hate a negro.
Because up to that time, I had considered them
all as one.
Now I
feel about him e)actly the way I feel about white people---I like some,.
77
--
am uninterested
in others, and some of them I find very distasteful.
But at that time I hadn't
Van Vechten's
got around to that.19)
personal assistance
was not a foregone
situation—in in f act, his help was often
refused.
"give and take"
His friendships
with
blacks were not foregone conclusions either ; rather they were strengthened step by step and enhanced
by personal
and those of the people he associated with.
in his autobiography,
A Long
meeting with Van Vechten
Way from
idiosyncrasies,
both his own
Claude McKay, for example
Home,
described
his unique
in Paris in the summer of 1929 as follows :
When we met at that
late hour
the world's
cosmopolites,
said "What
will you take ? "
at the celebrated
rendezvous
Mr. Van Vechten was full and funny.
I took a soft drink
of
He
and I could feel
that Mr. Van Vechten was shocked.
I am afraid that as a soft drinker I bored him.
The white author
and the black author of books about Harlem could not find much of
anything
to make conversation.
loaded .with vegetables
ten, pointing
The market
were rolling by
for Les Halles, and suddenly Mr. Van Vech-
to a truck-load
of huge carrots,
would like to have all of them !."
esting than coversation.
trucks
Perhaps
exclaimed,
"How
I
carrots were more inter-
But I did not feel in any way carroty .. .
But he excused himself to go to the men's room and never came back.2o)
Van Vechten
later sent
sorry for not returning,
discovered
himself
McKay
a message
explaining
but he was so high that,
ruuning
along the avenue
after
after
that
he "was
leaving us, he
a truck load of car-
rots. "21)
Mabel
Dodge
Luhan
said, concerning.
his character,
~. 78 —.
"How
Carl
loved
the grotesque ? He loved to twist and squirm with laughter
of strong contrast."
22) A white non-admirer
McKay that Van Vechten "patronized
the Harlem
who found
"Mr.
all right.” 24) Attesting
that
when
of Van Vechten's
had told
Negroes in a subtle way, to which
elite were blind because they were just learning sophistica-
tion." 23) After their Paris
McKay
at the oddty
Claude
meeting
this presumption
was eradicated
Van Vechten not a bit patronozing,
to their
McKay
friendship,
died in Chicago
beyond
words,
by
and quite
is the fact
in 1948, Van Vechten was
one of the pallbearers.
Van Vechten's
pansive
than might
Van Vechten's
sociation
association with black people was deeper and more
be expected.
Naturally,
role in the Harlem Renaissance
with black people.
His "indirect
it is not enough
ex-
to judge
only in terms of his asrole"
must also examined,
that is, the opening of his literary salon in 1924 after the Harlem Renaissance had gotten underway.
Moreover,
the New Negro
or the Harlem
Movement
modest and sincere.
However,
he had no intention
his dedicated
Renaissance
efforts
of leading
because he was
in the "know
the
Negro" . campaign were great and, according to George S. Schuyler,
"revolutionary"
. Because his close friends during the Renaissance, for
example,
Langston Hughes,
Rudolph
Fisher,
Wallace
Thurman,
Walter White, Jessie Fauset, Countee Cullen,
Claude McKay,
Aaron
George Schuyler,
Douglas,
Bessie
seem like an all-star cast of the Renaissance,
Smith,
Zola Neale Hurston,
and
oil of the Renaissance.
Rebeson,
it is easy to have the mis-
taken view that he had a leading role in that movement.
salon activities were tremendous,
Paul
Although
his
in reality they were only the lubricating
According
to Robert A. Bone :
-- 79 -
The
influence
ought
not
New
Negro
leaves
of
intellectuals
to be overestimated.
Movement
no doubt
ment
white
was
not
a serious
Some
with
white
Negro
by
the
Negro
artist
overestimating
the
by
Negro
critics
The
white
to
Renaissance
have
but
character.
initiated
attempt
the
domination,
of its indigenous
a "vogue"
on
charged
a sober
New
appraisal
Negro
"literary
the
Move-
faddists",
interpret
his
but
own
group
intellecutuals
such
life. 25)
In other
as Van
of
the
Vechten
black
Alain
words
and others
writers,
Locke
poets,
pointed
out,
"collaboration
intellectuals
was
ten,
in providing
and
white
minds,
of
the
may
and
as
white
key
lead one
artists
the
role
factor
the
in
in
to discredit
the
their
behalf.
own
the
"serious
Harlem
the
was
role
of
Renaissance.
for
the
all,
as
vital
in
the
Van
meeting
of literature—white
efforts"
After
intellectuals
artists",26)
environment
cause
of white
of white
Amercan
a stimulating
served
influence
Vech-
of black
as well
black
and
as black.
-NOTES
1) Carl Van Vechten,
History
Collection
"Reminiscences,"
of Columbia
Memoirs
University,
of Carl Van Vechten,
1960 (hereafter
referred
Oral
as CVV,
OH).
2) Ibid.
3) Carita
Day many years afterward
to found
the James
and Letters
ters,
4). CVV,
Johnson
at Yale University.
Van Vechten
Memorial
when
Collection
he attempted
of Negro
She sent him many materials
Arts
such as, let-
and photographs.
OH.
5) Van Vechten
and Walter
ten felt that Walter
6) CVV,
Weldon
assisted
White
later became
had become a show-off
estranged
because
Van Vech-
and a blowhard.
OH.
7) Langston
Hughes,
The Big Sea (New York:
— 80 ---
Hill and Wang,
1940), p. 272.
8) James Weldon Johnson, Along This Way (New York: Viking Press, 1933),
p. 382.
9) Hughes, The Big Sea, op. cit., p. 245: "A'Lelia Walker was a gorgeous
dark Amazon, in a silver turban. She had a town house in New York .(also
an apartment where she preferred to live) and a country mansion at Irvingtonon-the-Hudson, with pipe organ programs each morning to awaken her
guests gently. Her mother made a great fortune from the Madame Walker
Hair Straightening Process, which had worked wonders on unruly Negro
hair in the early nineteen hundreds—and which continues to work wonders
today. The daughter used much of that money for fun. A'Lelia Walker
was the joy-goddess of Harlem's 1920's ... When A'Lelia Walker died in
1931, she had a grand funeral. It was by invitation only. But, just as for
her parties, a great many more invitations had been issued than the small
but exclusive Seventh Avenue funeral parlor could provide for. Hours
before the funeral, the street in front of the undertaker's chapel was
crowded."
10) Ibid., p. 247: "At the novelist, Jessie Fauset's parties there was always
quite a different atmosphere from that at most other Herlem good-time
gatherings. At Miss Fauset's, a good time was shared by talking literature
and reading poetry aloud and perhaps enjoying some conversation in
French."
11)
12)
13)
14)
15)
CVV, OH.
Ibid.
Hughes, The Big Sea, op. cit., pp. 251-252.
CVV, OH.
Ibid.
16) George S. Schuyler, "The Van Vechten Revolution," Phylon: Atlanta University Review of Race and Culture (Fourth Quarter, 1950) p. 365.
17)
18)
19)
20)
Hughes, The Big Sea, op. cit., p. 255.
CVV, OH.
Ibid.
Claude McKay, A Long Way from Home (New York : Harcourt, Brace &
World, 1970), p. 320.
21) Ibid., p. 320.
22) Mabel Dodge Luhan, Movers and Shakers (New York : Harcourt, Brace
---
81 --
and Company, 1936), p. 79.
23) McKay, A Long Way from
Home, op. cit., p. 319.
24) Ibid, p. 319.
25) Robert A. Bone, The Negro Novel in America
(New Haven
and
London:
Yale University Press, 1958), p. 61.
26) Addison
Gayle, Jr., ed., The Black Aesthetic
Company, Inc., 1971), p. 18.
* This
Japan
essay
is based
on the
report
of
(1978).
—82----
the
(New York : Doubleday
American
Literature
Society
&
of