Remember Me to Harlem : the Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten, 1925-1964 / Edited by Emily Bernard
by Hughes, Langston (1902-1967)
- Used
- Hardcover
- first
- Condition
- See description
- ISBN 10
- 0679451137
- ISBN 13
- 9780679451136
- Seller
-
Galway, Ireland
2 Copies Available from This Seller
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About This Item
New York : Knopf, 2001. First Edition. Hardback. These engaging and wonderfully alive letters paint an intimate portrait of two of the most important and influential figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Carl Van Vechten--older, established, and white--was at first a mentor to the younger, gifted, and black Langston Hughes. But the relationship quickly grew into a great friendship--and for nearly four decades the two men wrote to each other expressively and constantly. They discussed literature and publishing. They exchanged favorite blues lyrics (""So now I know what Bessie Smith really meant by 'Thirty days in jail / With ma back turned to de wall,' "" Hughes wrote Van Vechten after a stay in a Cleveland jail on trumped-up charges). They traded stories about the hottest parties and the wildest speakeasies. They argued politics. They gossiped about the people they knew in common--James Baldwin, W. E. B. Du Bois, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston, H. L. Mencken. They wrote from near (of racism in Scottsboro) and far (of dancing in Cuba and trekking across the Soviet Union) , and always with playfulness and mutual affection. Today Van Vechten is a controversial figure; some consider him exploitative, at best peripheral to the Harlem Renaissance--or, indeed, as the author of the novelNigger Heaven, a blemish upon it, and upon Hughes by association. The letters tell a different, more subtle and complex story: Van Vechten did, in fact, help Hughes (and many other young black writers) to get published; Hughes in turn appreciated what Van Vechten was trying to do inNigger Heavenand defended him, fiercely. For all their differences, Hughes and Van Vechten remained staunchly loyal to each other throughout their lives. A correspondence of great cultural significance, judiciously gathered together here for the first time and annotated by the insightful young scholar Emily Bernard, Remember Me to Harlemshows us an unlikely friendship, one that is essential to our understanding of literature and race relations in twentieth-century America. Fine cloth copy in an equally fine dw. Particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight, bright, clean and especially sharp-cornered. ; 356 pages; Description: xxxix, 356 p. : ill. ; 25 cm. Subjects; African-American Novelists, American--20th century--Correspondence. Music critics & Photographers--United States--Correspondence. Harlem Renaissance
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Details
- Bookseller
- MW Books Ltd. (IE)
- Bookseller's Inventory #
- 38395
- Title
- Remember Me to Harlem : the Letters of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten, 1925-1964 / Edited by Emily Bernard
- Author
- Hughes, Langston (1902-1967)
- Format/Binding
- Hardback
- Book Condition
- Used
- Quantity Available
- 2
- Edition
- First Edition
- Binding
- Hardcover
- ISBN 10
- 0679451137
- ISBN 13
- 9780679451136
- Publisher
- New York : Knopf
- Place of Publication
- New York
- Date Published
- 2001
Terms of Sale
MW Books Ltd.
Returns accepted within 10 days of receipt if you are unsatisfied with either our description of, or the book itself.
About the Seller
MW Books Ltd.
Biblio member since 2005
Galway
About MW Books Ltd.
MW Books is an academic and antiquarian bookshop with a large stock in core areas such as Early Travel & Exploration, Nineteenth Century Literature, Early Political Economy, Labour and Social History, and Asian and Colonial History. Please don't hesitate to contact us with your questions or comments regarding any item listed.
Glossary
Some terminology that may be used in this description includes:
- Cloth
- "Cloth-bound" generally refers to a hardcover book with cloth covering the outside of the book covers. The cloth is stretched...
- First Edition
- In book collecting, the first edition is the earliest published form of a book. A book may have more than one first edition in...
- Fine
- A book in fine condition exhibits no flaws. A fine condition book closely approaches As New condition, but may lack the...
- Tight
- Used to mean that the binding of a book has not been overly loosened by frequent use.