Note: Born June 17, 1880, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, Carl Van Vechten attended the University of Chicago at the turn of the century. First American critic of modern dance, Van Vechten is perhaps best known for his photography (of artistic and literary figures such as Bessie Smith, Langston Hughes, F. Scott Fitzgerald) and for his enthusiastic promotion of black artists and writers. A frequent visitor to Harlem, his controversial novel Nigger Heaven was published in 1926.
