Remember Me to Harlem: The Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten

by Emily Bernard

Langston Hughes is widely remembered as a celebrated star of the Harlem Renaissance -- a writer whose bluesy, lyrical poems and novels still have broad appeal. What's less well known about Hughes is that for much of his life he maintained a friendship with Carl Van Vechten, a flamboyant white critic, writer, and photographer whose ardent support of black artists was peerless.
Despite their differences — Van Vechten was forty-four to Hughes twenty-two when they met–Hughes’ and Van Vechten’s shared interest in black culture lead to a deeply-felt, if unconventional friendship that would span some forty years. Between them they knew everyone — from Zora Neale Hurston to Richard Wright, and their letters, lovingly and expertly collected here for the first time, are filled with gossip about the antics of the great and the forgotten, as well as with talk that ranged from race relations to blues lyrics to the nightspots of Harlem, which they both loved to prowl. It’s a correspondence that, as Emily Bernard notes in her introduction, provides “an unusual record of entertainment, politics, and culture as seen through the eyes of two fascinating and irreverent men.

Genres: Nonfiction, Race, History, Literature, Literary Fiction, African American Literature, American History

400 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Sketchbook · Rating 5 out of 5]

A remarkable documentation between 2 friends during a vital period of America's most creative years, 1920s to '40s. The friendship extended over 40 years; CVVs own friendship w publisher Alfred Knopf resulted in literary success for Hughes. He also helped other black writers like Nella Larsen get published. Editor Bernard writes: "Van Vechten was more than a useful contact; he was a fellow champion of free expression in black arts and culture." Hughes and CVV, she adds, helped make the movement known as the Harlem Renaissance, and "for that reason their story is meaningful."

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

It really was a good chronical of a friendship. I've never read anything like that before. Personal letters give you a perspective on who a person is, like nothing else. The lives these two writers lived at a pretty interesting time in history seemed dificult, but romantic. The seafaring, and travelling in general, and the work on books, songs and plays is inspiring. It makes me want to get to work and live a life worth writing about!

[Audrey Babkirk Wellons · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very fun historical gossip! Packed with stories from the Harlem Rennaissance, which I knew nothing about. Picked this up after reading this article that mentioned the friendship between Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten: http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/201...

[Jane · Rating 4 out of 5]

An engaging collection of letters, between Langston Hughes, poet and author, and Carl Van Vechten, who was a writer, publisher, photographer, and devotee to Negro, as his term of the time was, arts and letters. Van Vechten was about 20 years older than Hughes and their correspondence extends from the 20s through to Van Vechten's death in 1964. Of the two, Hughes is the more interesting, having had a life of writing, travel and engagement with "his people," that is the colored people of the world. Both men were involved with the Harlem Renaissance and knew most of those connected with that period.

Hughes has a remarkable presence on the page--he is frank, funny, warm and expressive. It seems unsurprising how many pictures show him with a great smile. In spite of a largely unsupportive family and the persistence of prejudice and Jim Crow, Hughes was so talented, so smart, and so clear about his aims that his success (not financially--he seems to have been hard up most of his life) and his reach culturally have been and remain great.

Since the collection of letters continues through Van Vechten's life and close to the end of Hughes' (he died in 1967, I believe), it was interesting to watch them age: especially in light of the darker times arriving toward the end of their lives. (It is an odd thing to say, and I cannot really explain it, that the 60's, Civil Rights, Black Power should constitute something darker than Jim Crow, the heyday of lynchings, and segregation, but in much of the art put forth there was a lightness, a hope, a faith in the future. And works of this era do not seem to me to deserve the dismissal (although they did receive it sometimes) of purveying stereotypes. Hughes well knew the injury and injustice of racism, but attitudes about the appropriate artistic and cultural expression did change. It's a progression I wish I understood better.)

Toward the end of the book, the exchanges became less interesting to me. For one thing, both men were busy with deadlines, details of publishing and presenting theater works. Van Vechten was consumed with the archiving of his collections of art, writings, etc. that were being assembled for the James Weldon Johnson Archive at Yale. Van Vechten's tone became ever more hectoring to Hughes, and at one point he chides Hughes for signing his letters "Sincerely", which Van Vechten seemed to perceive as cold. It didn't strike me that way, but did make me wonder about currents of disappointment, insecurity, jealousy that may have affected Van Vechten.

The editor of the volume, Emily Bernard, says in her introduction: " This book is a story about two people, one famous, one formerly famous but now mostly unknown, who lived during an extraordinary period in American history. Between the two of them, they knew everyone, and nearly all of those people come to life in the pages that follow. Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten helped make the movement we know as the Harlem Renaissance, and for that reason their story is meaningful. But the most important story in this book is about a friendship--one complicated by race, power, and money. Like most friendships, it endured its share of ups and downs. But unlike most friendships, this one thrived because of difference, not in spite of it." That is a more than adequate summary and reason to read the book.

One last thing, the notes and appendices are well thought out and thorough. The notes are placed after each letter and so are accessible. The appendices include Van Vechten's introduction to The Weary Blues, entitled "Introducting Langston Hughes to The Reader," and Hughes' address memorializing Van Vechten's life. Both are touching.

[Daniel Grenier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pour moi qui ai travaillé quelques années sur la Renaissance de Harlem et ses principaux acteurs et actrices, c'est comme de retrouver deux vieux amis. Deux vieux amis qui connaissent tout le monde, qui ont littéralement été les personnages principaux d'une révolution culturelle, qui ont participé à l'avènement d'un mouvement et qui ont connu aussi bien l'excitation de la nouveauté que le marasme des modes qui passent.

J'aime Carl Van Vechten, j'aime le détester avec mes lunettes du XXIe siècle, j'aime aussi me reconnaître en lui, me reconnaître dans sa passion pour l'art et la pensée afro-américaine. Une passion qui l'a souvent amené à faire des faux pas et à agir plus pour son propre compte que pour celui de ses "protégé.e.s". J'aime le voir se débattre entre ses différentes postures irréconciliables, celles d'ami, de mentor, de promoteur et d'entremetteur. Van Vechten écrit des lettres remplies de "gossip" et de papotage mondain, de conseils stylistiques, des lettres toujours intéressantes à lire pour quiconque cherche à se remémorer par procuration une époque pas tout à fait oubliée, mais sans doute négligée.

J'adore Langston Hughes, j'adore sa sensibilité, ses mots tendres et corrosifs, sa fidélité et son sens de l'honneur et de l'indignation. J'adore le voir se débattre avec l'admiration parfois intransigeante que son ami lui porte, tenter de trouver sa propre voie et sa propre voix au milieu des éloges et des recommendations. Hughes écrit de superbes lettres remplies de réflexion sur le monde des arts et des lettres, sur le milieu éditorial, sur les gens ("importants" ou non) qu'il croise au fil de ses nombreux déplacements. C'est un bonheur renouvelé chaque fois de le lire, même quand il verse dans la banalité du quotidien.

Je pourrais citer mille passages de leurs échanges, qui m'ont fait sourire, mais je me contente de celui-ci, que je trouve représentatif de l'amitié qu'on partagé ces deux hommes pendant plus de quarante ans:

(Langston à Carl, 12 août 1942)

"Thanks immensely for your note and the photos of Jimmy [Davis] which just came. I think they are most successful pictures - in that they look "just like him," capturing his personality as well as his appearance. He is a most likable and amusing fellow, as I think you will agree if you get to know him better. Certainly one of the compensations of writing poetry is that people like you and Jimmy come walking into one's life on the carpet of a poem. THE WEARY BLUES brought you along, via the OPPORTUNITY dinner, didn't it? And that poem of mine about, "This is no time for compromise or fear," caused him to come to see me - just at the moment when I needed somebody to make piano copies of THE NEGRO SPEAKS OF RIVERS and FREEDOM ROAD!" (p. 208)

C'est un ouvrage d'une grande qualité que nous offre Emily Bernard: en plus des quelques 250 lettres reproduites intégralement, la chercheuse propose des centaines de notes explicatives et biographiques, tout en ajoutant des mises en contexte ponctuelles.

[Jeremy Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

Always seems like there's so much left out, letters that we don't get in this collection. More gayness, more gossip.

[Anne Bradley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Found this in my favorite book store in New Orleans and wanted it. Then I thought, "This is exactly the kind of book you think you want to read and then it sits on your shelf for ten years. Sit down, read a couple of letters, and get over it." Walked out of the store with it and started reading while still on vacation.

Delightful mix of history and literature and gossip with a focus on the Harlem Renaissance. The story of Zora Neale Hurston and Mule Bone - which has been on my TBR for over a year - alone would have been worth reading this book.

Now excuse me while I go dig up everything Langston Hughes ever wrote.

[Lorraine · Rating 1 out of 5]

I truly disliked Carl Van Vechten from reading his letters. They reveal a frivolous, narcissistic man obsessed with African American artists, in particular Hughes. Hughes seems grateful for Van Vechten's assistance throughout his career but it gets boring reading about it. The thing I learned most from reading the book, don't read other people's mail. I still love Langston though.

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

These letters are simply amazing. It is really interesting to watch Hughes and Van Vechten interact and become friends in real time. I started using the book for a paper I was working on but quickly found myself engrossed in the world of literature, art, and 1920s Harlem.

[Karys · Rating 3 out of 5]

I truly enjoyed the opportunity to learn about some of the legends I grew up hearing about through the eyes of their contemporaries. At times it was genuinely light fare between friends. Other times…a brilliant historical record. There were points where it seems CVV became a bit too comfortable in his commentary on Black people. While his intentions were good I am sure it seemed not enough people around him seemed it appropriate to tell him he was a GUEST at the cookout. Nevertheless, it was enjoyable but certainly not a light read.

[Tony Tian-Ren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just the intro and the bio of all the individuals mentioned in the letters makes this a worthy read. It's so much more than a collection of letters between Hughes and Van Vechten. Bernard contextualizes each letter with extensive footnotes so that modern readers can be part of the conversation between these two men.

[Zee T · Rating 4 out of 5]

Super interesting to read the letters exchanged between two friends. Ms Bernard's work, however, was completely not lost as without the explanations and reference of individuals, one would never have been able to fully understand the beauty of this friendship and the time and space that it took place in.

[Gwen Lester-Cunningham · Rating 2 out of 5]

Boring. The letters in this book did not give me any insight into the lives of these very interesting men, as I hoped it would. Big disappointment

[Brian · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as interesting as I'd hoped.

[Lanier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Incredible insight to one of the greatest authors, black or otherwise, to influence the artistic scene of American literature. Still, just started this intro., by one of Hughes' greatest friends and co-conspirators in crime, Arnold Rampersad.