Music and Bad Manners (Barnes & Noble Digital Library)

Carl Van Vechten was not only America’s first dance critic, but the first to champion American music and consider ragtime and jazz serious genres. This 1916 collection of writings heralded the Jazz Age with such irreverent but informed assessments as “Music for the Movies,” “Spain and Music,” “Shall We Realize Wagner’s Ideals?” and “The Bridge Burners.”