Nigger Heaven - Reception

Reception

The book, due in part to the inclusion of the pejorative, "nigger," in its title, was met with mixed reception. It was initially banned in Boston. Van Vechten's own father was said to have written his son two letters imploring that he change the title to something less offensive.

Many early reviews of the novel focused on the seemingly negative portrayal of African-American culture, with its vivid depictions of sex, gambling, alcohol, and other immoral acts. W. E. B. DuBois attacked the novel in an article published in The Crisis, the official magazine of the NAACP upon its publication. He later addressed the text in depth in an essay titled, On Carl Van Vechten's Nigger Heaven, where he called the novel, "an affront to the hospitality of black folk and to the intelligence of white."

Conversely, other prominent African-American reviews, such as that of James Weldon Johnson, which appeared in Opportunity, the official journal of the National Urban League, lauded the text. Van Vechten's friend and poet, Langston Hughes would go on to write poems to replace the songs used in the original manuscript and in the first printings of the text.

Opinions of the novel also diverged along racial lines. Many white critics of the time, largely ignorant of emerging black authors, had little to compare Nigger Heaven to, and viewed the novel as an enlightening, forward-minded text.