Who Was Henry Van Dyke?

 

Henry Van Dyke, 1928-2011

 

Henry had an ageless quality; one never thought of him as older. But there was maturity in the way he appreciated certain artists, intellectuals and beauties whose value had come to be under-rated. So he liked Countee Cullen, Alain Leroy Locke, Jimmy Daniels, Jane White, Earle Hyman, Ethel Waters, Aron Douglas and Harold Jackman. From Paul Meers, to Alvin Ailey, to Aubrey Lynch, he had a passion for great dancers. He sounded sincere saying he adored my pea soup, with peppermint and chicken stock. What he loved best were his great friends, such as Willard Winter, Alex Gildzen and Bobby Short. Admiring younger writers like Hilton Als and Darryl Pinckney, he also cherished reading and knowing old masters like Langston Hughes, Jimmy Baldwin, Gerri Major and Gore Vidal. By now surely you are wondering, just who was  Henry Van Dyke? You perhaps have never heard of him, but he was a gifted writer--- an editor, journalist, novelist and teacher.

 

Poet and novelist Countee Cullen 

 

 Philosopher Alain Leroy Locke

 

Cabaret singer Jimmy Daniels

 

 

 

Actress Jane White 

 

Actor Earle Hyman 

 



Ethel Waters 

 

 

Aron Douglas before the bathroom mural he painted for Carl Van Vecten.





High School French teacher, Harold Jackman, for 50 years called the handsomest man in Harlem!







Dancer Paul Meers

 

 

 

Alvin Ailey



Designer, Willard Winter

 

 Alex Gildzen

 

 

Cabaret Showman, Bobby  Short!

 

 

 Langston

Journalist for Ebony and Jet, Gerri Major
                              

 

 He was born in Allegan, Michigan, but spent his childhood in Montgomery, Alabama, where his father taught at Alabama State Teachers College. For high school, Henry returned to Michigan, remaining to receive a Master of Arts degree in journalism from the University of Michigan, in 1955. This was when Henry received the Avery Hopwood Award for Fiction, proof positive that, young, gifted and black, he was well on his way.

 

On the move after graduating, Henry worked as a journalist and editor in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and New York. During time spent on the editorial staff at Basic Books in Manhattan, Henry did what so many fail to do, even when they possess the most outstanding talents. In 1965 Henry finished his first published novel, Ladies of the Rachmaninoff Eyes,whose plot revolves around the production of a Gertrude Stein play by self-proclaimed members of her circle. This troubled production serves as the stage that allows one to examine the young African American protagonist's antic existence. Oliver's,  interactions with this Sapphic band make for an amusing read. Short pieces that followed appeared in Transatlantic Review, Antioch Review, Generation and The O. Henry Prize Stories.

  

In 1968 Blood of Stawberries, was  dedicated to the effusive chronicler of the Harlem Renaissance, Carl Van Vechten.   Race, class, conflict, the often bypassed road to resolution, these are the issues Henry wrote about.

Dead Piano appeared in 1971, at the apogee of an epoch marked by black liberation politics and heightened consciousness concerning a host of heretofore taboo progressive issues.  Henry's third novel, set solely within the African American community, addresses race and class as a 'family fight'. It becomes a comic contest, where characters assert the authenticity of their blackness, in terms of assimilation and material ascendance, versus separatism's spiritual awakening, rife with certain economic instability.

1962

 

  

 

 

 

As a black gay writer, my casual friend Henry Van Dyke was arch and promising enough to be photographed by Van Vechten.  He was charming, if he wished to be, and good looking enough to be befriended by  Bobby Short, with whom he had an unsatisfying dalliance. Writing, he mostly skirted sexuality. His Dr. King and Bayard Rustinesque contention that integration was valuable and possible, aided his small success, I think.  He won a couple of prizes, and his short story, The Red Shoes, which spoofs up-tight, even though dying, Bobby Short, shown 'relaxing' at his villa in the South of France, disparaging militantly open, more outré gays, is wickedly, laugh-out-loud funny.  

Like almost everyone, you too likely never knew of  him.   Just the same, among those of us who did, Henry Van Dyke, a good writer, a good friend, and a most extraordinary lunch and drinking companion, will be greatly missed. 

 

Henry Van Dyke's service will be held on Sunday, January15, 2012, from 11o'clock am to 1o'clock pm, at the John Krtil Funeral Home 1297 First Avenue, between 69th & 70th Streets.

 

 



 

Comments

[Account Deleted]

Thank you, Michael, for this post!
Ever since you mentioned Van Dyke to me, I've been waiting for it and I am not disappointed. I am thinking you do a follow-up of some sort after the funeral, no?

These photos are MARVELOUS! I've always heard of the Ethel Waters "bust" but could never really find it. I've never seen that particular shot of Cullen - which is beautiful, by the way, the photo of Jane White is stunning, seeing Jimmie Daniels as an "older" man is very interesting and the Paul Meers photos are OUTSTANDING! BRAVO TO YOU on those ALONE! I will admit that I have a post scheduled on Harold Jackman for next month, and I'll do the best I can but I may need to check with YOU FIRST! I love it! WOW .... I can just imagine the stories Van Dyke must have told you about the Van Vechten sittings.

Thanks again for bringing Henry Van Dyke to us. You are so damn lucky to have gotten to know him (and some of the others you've met). Keep giving them props!

[Edward]

fantastic collection of photos! nice to see willard winter among them -- when neil and i and harriet zwerling visited henry several weeks before his death, willard was also there and we met him. i'm 87, but he's in his nineties (you'd never guess!) and went up and down stairs better than me! i love the attention you've given to our henry in these two posts. i suspect you're also a remarkable man.

[Thomas Jacoby]

I had the great good fortune to know Henry Van Dyke from his years in Kent, Ohio. Although I live in Florida, whenever we traveled north, once or twice a year, we stayed in Kent with old friends and Henry was part of their social circle. He was always lovely to be around and, of course, a brilliant conversationalist. I only learned of his death this evening. My friend in Kent forwarded these pieces along with the photos. I'm sad that Henry is gone but he had a great time while he was among us.

[Jenus]

Awesome!!

[John Meola]

I was very saddened to learn of Henry's passing. He was an English professor of mine at Kent State and a very gracious host on one of my visits to New York. He was a wonderful teacher, lover of good vodka and a splendid dining companion. He will be missed.

[Michael Henry Adams, Style and Taste!]

WHEN YOU ARE NEXT HEERE I'D LOVE T MEET . I NEED TO LEARN MORE OF HENRY FOR MY HOMO HARLEM BOOK...