Editing Nigger Heaven (section)

==Author==
By the 1920s, Van Vechten was a noted music and dance critic in New York. [[Alfred A. Knopf|Knopf]] had already published several of his novels by the time ''Nigger Heaven'' was conceived. He first became fascinated with Harlem when he read a book by a young Black writer, [[Walter Francis White|Walter White]]. He sought out White, who worked for the [[NAACP]], and White introduced him to many black artists, which stimulated Van Vechten's appreciation for [[Blues|blues music]] and for Harlem.<ref name="Sanneh"/>  Van Vechten wrote to [[Gertrude Stein]] that, "I have passed practically my whole winter in company with [[Negro]]es 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 [[Lynching in the United States|lynchings]]. It will be about NEGROES, as they live now in the new city of Harlem (which is part of New York)."<ref name="Sanneh"/>