Nearly lost after its anonymous publication in 1926 and only recently
rediscovered, When Washington Was in Vogue is an acclaimed love story
written and set during the Harlem Renaissance. When bobbed-hair flappers
were in vogue and Harlem was hopping, Washington, D.C., did its share of
roaring, too.
Davy Carr, a veteran of the Great War and a new arrival in the nation's
capital, is welcomed into the drawing rooms of the city's Black elite.
Through letters, Davy regales an old friend in Harlem with his
impressions of race, politics, and the state of Black America as well as
his own experiences as an old-fashioned bachelor adrift in a world of
alluring modern women.
With an introduction by Adam McKible and commentary by Emily Bernard,
this novel, a timeless love story wonderfully enriched with the drama
and style of one of the most hopeful moments in African American
history, is as "delightful as it is significant" (Essence).