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313:, upon its publication. He later addressed the text in depth in the essay "On Carl Van Vechten's Nigger Heaven", where he called the novel "an affront to the hospitality of black folk and to the intelligence of white." Conversely, other prominent reviews by African Americans lauded the text. Among them was that of
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society. Van
Vechten put the titular expression in the dialogue of one of his characters, who explained that the denizens of Harlem were stuck in the balcony of New York City, while the whites in the "good seats" downtown only occasionally and cruelly acknowledged them to laugh or sneer, but not to know them.
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nicknamed the
Scarlet Creeper. The main part of the book is structured as two novellas. The first novella is centered on Mary Love, a young librarian who is fascinated by the diverse cultures of Harlem in which she lives, as well as its different hierarchies, and wants to belong but is unsure of her
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nature of New York. After his relationship with Mary, he takes up with a debauched socialite as they explore the wild side of Harlem. The socialite dumps him adding to his earlier negative views on the society in which they live. The novel ends with a violent confrontation involving the
Scarlet
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The ambivalence about the book, its title, and what it signifies about the author, has continued into the 21st century. According to Sennah, Van
Vechten meant the book to be a celebration of Harlem, but the title expressed the ambivalence about the place in the context of a largely segregated
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condemned both the text and the reaction to it. According to him, the novel wavers between sophistication and sentimentality, but sentimentality regrettably wins out; however, he says the "sting" of the book "to certain
Negroes" is also not praiseworthy. Poet
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intellectuals, political activists, bacchanalian workers, and other Harlem characters. The plot concerns two people, a quiet librarian and an aspiring writer, who try to keep their love alive as racism denies them every opportunity.
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and have succeeded in getting into most of the important sets", and told her of his future plans for "my negro novel". "This will not be a novel about negroes in the South or white contacts or
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Despite central characters who were young, cultured, and Black, many early reviews of the novel "focused on the supposed 'immorality' of the novel, the naked presentation of sex and crime."
284:. Van Vechten's father was said to have written his son two letters imploring that he change the title to something less offensive. Van Vechten discussed the title with poet
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360:(who nonetheless calls the title an "open wound") and especially Edward White, express more admiration for what Van Vechten attempted to do by crossing boundaries.
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and patronizing sympathy". The book was successfully marketed to white people to help explore their fascination with the "other side of town". Later biographers,
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regarded it as an "affront to the hospitality of black folks". The book fuelled a period of "Harlemania", during which the neighborhood became
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place in it. She briefly has a relationship with a writer named Byron Kasson and they have extended conversations on literature and art.
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found the book at best quaint, but calls it a "colossal fraud", with Van
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Opinions of the novel also diverged along racial lines. Many white critics of the time had little to compare
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in the United States in the 1920s. The book and its title have been controversial since its publication.
226:. It will be about NEGROES, as they live now in the new city of Harlem (which is part of New York)."
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was conceived. He first became fascinated with Harlem when he read a book by a young Black writer,
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condemned both the book and the author in the 1950s. Historian of the Harlem
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Creeper and Byron, and although the
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to Harlem. It also split the Black literary community, as some including
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Hart, Robert C. (1973). "Literary
Relations in the Harlem Renaissance".
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Hart, Robert C. (1973). "Literary Relations in the Harlem Renaissance".
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Helbling, Mark (1976). "Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance".
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Helbling, Mark (1976). "Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance".
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The controversy cast a long shadow over the reputation of its author.
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Worth, Robert F. (1995). "Nigger Heaven and the Harlem Renaissance".
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The novel is a portrayal of life in the "great black walled city" of
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First edition of the text, with original dustwrapper, published 1926
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to and viewed the novel as an enlightening, forward-minded text.
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that, "I have passed practically my whole winter in company with
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The second novella is Byron's story. He greatly resents the
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Perkins, Margo V. (1988). "The Achievement and Failure of
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The book, due in part to the inclusion of the pejorative "
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had already published several of his novels by the time
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The short novel begins with a prologue about a violent
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became an instant bestseller and served as an informal
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The PAL Holdings and Commentary on Carl Van Vechten
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411:"White Mischief: The passions of Carl Van Vechten"
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731:: Carl Van Vechten and the Harlem Renaissance".
759:. Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press.
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303:attacked the novel in an article published in
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466:. University of Georgia Press. p. 192.
182:among white people, who then frequented its
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628:. New York, New York: Henry Holt & Co.
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