Van Vechten, Carl (1880-1964). American novelist, critic, and photographer. Born in Cedar Rapids, IA, Carl Van Vechten graduated from the University of Chicago in 1903. After a stint at a Chicago newspaper he moved to New York City in 1906 and became assistant music critic for the New York Times. Immersing himself in the life of Greenwich Village, he met Willa Cather and attended the famous salon of Mabel Dodge (later Luhan). Van Vechten left full-time newspaper work in 1914 but continued championing the modern and avant garde in the arts. He advocated for the works of Gertrude Stein, who made him her literary executor, and became an important patron of the Harlem Renaissance. Van Vechten’s first marriage ended in divorce in 1912 and in 1914 he married actress Fania Marinoff, but throughout his life he also had affairs with men. In the 1930s, he began pursuing photography professionally, specializing in portraiture. After three years of evading him, in 1936 Cather finally sat for a portrait by him. During World War II, Van Vechten was active in the Stage Door Canteen and the American Theater Wing. He remained an active photographer and presence in New York’s cultural life until his death.

Knopf, Alfred, Jr. (1918-2009) (“Pat”). Publisher; son of Alfred and Blanche Knopf. Born in White Plains, NY, “Pat” was the only child of Alfred and Blanche Knopf. Preoccupied with the publishing business of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., they left him to be cared for by nannies and sent him to Phillips Exeter Academy, an elite boarding school in New Hampshire. Willa Cather was very fond of him and corresponded with him about his reading and education. When he failed to gain entrance to Princeton University, he ran away with only $15 in his pocket, and his parents found him in Salt Lake City, UT. Alfred Knopf shared this story, otherwise treated as a deep family secret, with Cather. Pat subsequently enrolled in Union College in Schenectady, NY. He wrote asking Cather about the structure of The Professor’s House (1925), and she permitted Burgess Johnson, Pat’s English professor at Union, to publish her remarks as “When I wrote The Professor’s House” in the College English Association newsletter (1938). Pat’s studies were interrupted when he was called up for military service in 1941; he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. Awarded his BA in 1943 he joined the family business, Alfred A. Knopf, Inc., in 1946 as company secretary and trade books manager, subsequently becoming vice president of sales and establishing the Vintage Books paperback imprint. He cofounded the Atheneum imprint in 1960 and retired as a senior vice-president of Macmillan in 1988.