"With assessments of his work by his contemporaries: A.E. Gallatin, Angela E. Hagen, Marsden Hartley, Helen Henderson, Henry McBride, Carl Van Vechten, Rita Wells, Willard Huntington Wright."
Includes index.
Summary
Charles Demuth is widely recognized as one of the most significant American modernists. His precisionist cityscapes, exquisite flowers, and free-wheeling watercolors of vaudeville performers, homosexual bathhouses, and cabaret scenes hand in many of the country's most prestigious collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Columbus Museum of Art, the Amon Carter Museum in Fort Worth, the Art Institute of Chicago, and in Demuth's Lancaster, Pennsylvania, family residence, now home of the Demuth Foundation. At a time when many American artists remained tied to Europe, Demuth "Americanized" European modernism.This collection of155 of his letters offers valuable views of the arts and letters colonies in Provincetown, New York, and Paris. Besides offering information on Demuth's own works, the letters also shed light on the output of his contemporaries, as well as references to their trips, liaisons, and idiosyncrasies. Demuth numbered among his correspondents some of the most famous artists and writers of his time, including Georgia O'Keeffe, Eugene O'Neill, John Reed, Gertrude Stein, Alfred Stieglitz, Carl Van Vechten, and William Carlos Willliams. In his travels in the United States and abroad, he encountered many other talented contemporaries: Peggy Bacon, Muriel Draper, Marcel Duchamp, the Stetthemer sisters, artists and writers, patrons, and gallery owners. Whether he is offering to pick up a copy of Joyce's Ulysses for Eugene O'Neill or trying to convince Georgia O'Keeffe to decorate his music room ("just allow that red and yellow 'canna' one to spread until it fills the room"), Demuth is always in the thick of art and literary life. Flamboyant in attire but discreet in his homosexuality, Demuth also reveals in his letters the life of a talented homosexual in the teens and twenties. With his best friends Robert Locher and Marsden Hartley, he circulated through the art colonies of Greenwich Village, Provincetown, and Paris, meeting everyone. The book also contains reprints of some short appraisals of Demuth and his work that were published during his lifetime, long out of print, including pieces by A. E. Gallatin, Angela E. Hagen, Marsden Hartley, Helen Henderson, Henry McBride, Carl Van Vechten, Rita Wells, and Willard Huntington Wright. [from the publisher]
Former site of Mr. Spangler's residence. Attached note reads: Mr. Spangler residence, he was a barber for 10 Chair Bransby Shop West King St. On sly he cut hair for us poor kids in bsmnt. on kitchen step stool for 15-25 cents. Son Spib got electrocuted when radio fell into tub. Two other boys worked as jobbers at Solomon Watch Part Supply Store on Prince St.
Provenance
Photo album entitled "My Cabbage Hill" compiled by Francis X. Schaller, Jr., of photos of the Cabbage Hill neighborhood of Lancaster. Photographs were taken in 2008, but Mr. Schaller's memories of the neighborhood from 1935 to 1948, from the age of 5 to the age of 18, are included. Mr. Schaller is an Armstrong retiree and grew up in the Cabbage Hill neighborhood.
Former site of George Scheuchenzuber's barber shop, 545 St. Joseph Street. He later moved to Dorwart between High and Vine Streets.
Provenance
Photo album entitled "My Cabbage Hill" compiled by Francis X. Schaller, Jr., of photos of the Cabbage Hill neighborhood of Lancaster. Photographs were taken in 2008, but Mr. Schaller's memories of the neighborhood from 1935 to 1948, from the age of 5 to the age of 18, are included. Mr. Schaller is an Armstrong retiree and grew up in the Cabbage Hill neighborhood.
Former site of Rupert Danz barber shop, 652 St. Joseph Street.
Provenance
Photo album entitled "My Cabbage Hill" compiled by Francis X. Schaller, Jr., of photos of the Cabbage Hill neighborhood of Lancaster. Photographs were taken in 2008, but Mr. Schaller's memories of the neighborhood from 1935 to 1948, from the age of 5 to the age of 18, are included. Mr. Schaller is an Armstrong retiree and grew up in the Cabbage Hill neighborhood.
Former site of Amico (Cicero) shoe repair shop, in garage, next to 109 New Dorwart Street.
Provenance
Photo album entitled "My Cabbage Hill" compiled by Francis X. Schaller, Jr., of photos of the Cabbage Hill neighborhood of Lancaster. Photographs were taken in 2008, but Mr. Schaller's memories of the neighborhood from 1935 to 1948, from the age of 5 to the age of 18, are included. Mr. Schaller is an Armstrong retiree and grew up in the Cabbage Hill neighborhood.
Former site of Geiger barber shop, Manor Street near Filbert Street.
Provenance
Photo album entitled "My Cabbage Hill" compiled by Francis X. Schaller, Jr., of photos of the Cabbage Hill neighborhood of Lancaster. Photographs were taken in 2008, but Mr. Schaller's memories of the neighborhood from 1935 to 1948, from the age of 5 to the age of 18, are included. Mr. Schaller is an Armstrong retiree and grew up in the Cabbage Hill neighborhood.
St. Joseph's Parochial School, 8th grade class, 1944. Sitting from left to right: Anna Shreiner, Francis X. Schaller, Jr. , Marie Siegler. First row: John Hohenwarter, Verna Reynolds, Davie Harnish, Dorothy Brignola, Charles Schreck, Doris Roschel, Vearl Danz. Second row: Theresa Zellner, jean Butz, Mary Lehman, Louis Wittensoldner, Geraldine Draude, Albert Weber, Robert Hilbert Sr., Mary Philothea O. S. F., Fred Roschel, Mildred Arnold, Shirley Phelan, Robert eckman, Mary Musser. Third row: Joseph Meier, Geraldine Dommel, Eugene Darrenkamp, Donald Danz, Patricia Rieker, Patricia Farrell, Patricia Liebley, James Burger, John Muchenthaler, Geraldine Winnerling, Robert Henkel, Margert Walsh, Richard Leineweaver. 4th and 5th rows: Rose Connor, Michael Kirchner, Doris Brown, Helene Wiebush, Robert Flick, Loraine Nolan, Elizabeth Werhel, Matthew Gegg, Rosemary Elbert, Richzrd Zimmerman. Last row: Father Moeller, Dolores Shertzer, Joseph Kirchner, Martha McIntyre, Msgr. Joseph J. Schweich.
Provenance
Photo album entitled "My Cabbage Hill" compiled by Francis X. Schaller, Jr., of photos of the Cabbage Hill neighborhood of Lancaster. Photographs were taken in 2008, but Mr. Schaller's memories of the neighborhood from 1935 to 1948, from the age of 5 to the age of 18, are included. Mr. Schaller is an Armstrong retiree and grew up in the Cabbage Hill neighborhood.
Dan Kuhlman's barber shop, Third and Manor Streets.
Provenance
Photo album entitled "My Cabbage Hill" compiled by Francis X. Schaller, Jr., of photos of the Cabbage Hill neighborhood of Lancaster. Photographs were taken in 2008, but Mr. Schaller's memories of the neighborhood from 1935 to 1948, from the age of 5 to the age of 18, are included. Mr. Schaller is an Armstrong retiree and grew up in the Cabbage Hill neighborhood.
Mavrotes Macredes had a barber shop here at 232 West Strawberry Street.
Provenance
Photo album entitled "My Cabbage Hill" compiled by Francis X. Schaller, Jr., of photos of the Cabbage Hill neighborhood of Lancaster. Photographs were taken in 2008, but Mr. Schaller's memories of the neighborhood from 1935 to 1948, from the age of 5 to the age of 18, are included. Mr. Schaller is an Armstrong retiree and grew up in the Cabbage Hill neighborhood.
Former site of Harry Bear's barber shop, 511 High Street
Provenance
Photo album entitled "My Cabbage Hill" compiled by Francis X. Schaller, Jr., of photos of the Cabbage Hill neighborhood of Lancaster. Photographs were taken in 2008, but Mr. Schaller's memories of the neighborhood from 1935 to 1948, from the age of 5 to the age of 18, are included. Mr. Schaller is an Armstrong retiree and grew up in the Cabbage Hill neighborhood.
