2 Books for Jazz Age Enthusiasts

Dear readers,

The Museum of the City of New York recently unveiled the refurbished Stettheimer Dollhouse, the decades-long creation of Carrie Stettheimer — who, with her sisters Florine (a painter) and Ettie (a writer), hosted notable salons for the 1920s avant-garde in their vast suite of apartments at a Midtown apartment building called Alwyn Court.

I have been to see the house (“dollhouse” is almost a misnomer) a number of times since the museum brought it back on display, and have admired the miniature Marcel Duchamps and Gaston Lachaises as well as the fabulous interiors. It’s a true work of art in its own right. And it’s sent me down a rabbit hole.

—Sadie

“Parties: Scenes From Contemporary New York Life,” by Carl Van Vechten

Fiction, 1930

Any discussion of the New York 1920s avant-garde must include Van Vechten — music critic, drama critic, photographer, novelist, Florine Stettheimer subject, and friend and editor to Gertrude Stein, among many, many other things. Van Vechten is frequently described as a champion of the Harlem Renaissance and is often credited with sparking interest among white bohemians (and bored socialites) with jazz and Black culture. For a full and nuanced portrait of his contradictory and wildly prolific life and career, I implore you to read his collected correspondence with Langston Hughes as well as Edward White’s excellent 2014 biography, “The Tastemaker: Carl Van Vechten and the Birth of Modern America.”