because he “felt as if he had to make every girl in
the world feel as if she were the only girl in the
world” (Amory, 138).
Crowinshield was the first editor of Vanity Fair.
His tenure began in 1914, shortly after the publish-
ing house of Condé Nast founded the magazine as
Dress and Vanity Fairin 1913. He continued in the
post until 1936 and, according to Cleveland
Amory, oversaw the magazine’s evolution into “the
central rendezvous of a Café Society without the
Café” (Amory, 137). He had strong connections in
the literary world, most notably his relationship
with poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, for whom he
became a longtime and influential patron. In addi-
tion to providing key emotional support, Crownin-
shield also published Millay’s work, under her
pseudonym, in Vanity Fair.A collector of contem-
porary art, Crowninshield in 1929 became a
founder of the Museum of Modern Art in New
York City.
Crowninshield came to be regarded as “the
last of Society’s acknowledged ‘arbiters’ ” (Amory,
20) and as “the last of the species known as ‘gen-
tleman’” (Amory, 20). Just two years before he
died, he lamented the current social trends that
were leading to the end of “real Society.” “Nowa-
days the only qualification for membership,” he
noted, “is to own, or rent, a dress suit—and soon
we won’t even do that” (Amory, 20). He died in
- Following the funeral in the St. James Epis-
copal Church in New York City, he was buried in
the historic Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cam-
bridge, Massachusetts.
Bibliography
Amory, Cleveland. Who Killed Society?New York: Harper
& Brothers, 1960.
Cheney, Anne. Millay in Greenwich Village.University:
The University of Alabama Press, 1975.
C’ruiter John Matheus(1926)
A 1926 play by JOHNMATHEUS in which the
younger generation in a family of sharecroppers
in rural Georgia heeds the call of northern re-
cruiters and prepares to join the great black mi-
gration. Matheus’s play was part of a substantial
migration literature produced in post–Civil War
America.
Matheus develops only four characters in this
play. By keeping the cast to a minimum, he is able
to hone in on the emotional and domestic implica-
tions of the migration, the hardships, and the cher-
ished aspects of black southern life. Sonny, the
23-year-old grandson of Granny, knows that he has
a chance to better himself and provide for his
young wife if he goes to work in a Detroit muni-
tions factory. He eventually succeeds in coaxing
his grandmother to join them, but at the last
minute, when she realizes that the family dog has
to be left behind, she refuses to go. The scene
closes with the haunting image of the elderly
woman sitting alone in her cabin.Cullen, Countee Porter(1903–1946)
A literary prodigy whose early intellectual prowess
and stunning publication record represented the
best of the Harlem Renaissance. A poet, play-
wright, author of children’s books, and novelist,
Cullen acquired impressive honors during his rela-
tively short but entirely productive literary career.
By the time of his untimely death at the age of 42
in 1946, he had energized the American literary
scene, documented key social and cultural trends
of the times, and contributed undeniably to the
richness and diversity of the era.
Cullen was the adopted son of the Reverend
FREDERICKCULLEN, a civil rights activist, the presi-
dent of the Harlem branch of the National Associ-
ation for the Advancement of Colored People, and
an influential minister of the Salem Methodist Epis-
copal Church in New York, and his wife, Carolyn
Belle Mitchell Cullen. He joined the Cullen family
after the death of Amanda Porter, the woman
whom some scholars identify as his grandmother,
and with whom he was living in the Bronx, in 1917.
Cullen maintained that he was a native of New
York City while others, including friends, suggested
that he was born in Louisville, Kentucky, or in Bal-
timore, Maryland. As scholar Gerald Early notes,
Cullen’s undergraduate transcript lists New York
City as his birthplace. Other scholars suggest that
the writer embraced the city once he began to
achieve literary acclaim there. Cullen was relatively
circumspect about personal details and never pro-
vided any specific accounts of his early childhood.
Cullen’s birth mother was Elizabeth Thomas Lucas,104 C’ruiter