Introduction and Passing Nella Larsen Introduction and Passing Miriam D. Dufer

Nella Larsen (April 13, 1893-March 30, 1964) Photo by Carl Van Vechten

Family Born Nellie Walker in Chicago to Marie Hanson, a Danish immigrant domestic worker and Peter Walker, a West Indian man of color from Saint Croix who soon left the family She later took the surname of her Scandinavian stepfather, Peter Larsen In 1919 she married Elmer Samuel Imes, a physicist – only the second African- American to receive a PhD in physics. She divorced him in 1933.

Education Attended Fisk University in Nashville, TN 1910-1912 studied at the University of Copenhagen 1912 enrolled in nursing school at New York City’s Lincoln Hospital – graduated in 1915 Attended library school at Columbia University

Employment Assistant superintendent of nurses from 1915-1916 Worked at the 135th street branch of the New York City Library in 1919 She begins to write, publishing her first piece in 1920 Certified as a librarian in 1923 by the New York Public Library’s library school and became a children’s librarian in Manhattan’s Lower East Side

Works "The Wrong Man" (1926) "Freedom" (1926) 1928 Quicksand 1929 Passing 1930 “Sanctuary,”

Works About the Author Davis, Thadious M. Nella Larsen, Novelist of the Harlem Renaissance: A Woman's Life Unveiled. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State UP, 199 Larson, Charles R. Invisible Darkness: Jean Toomer & Nella Larsen. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 1993. McLendon, Jacquelyn Y. The Politics of Color in the Fiction of Jessie Fauset and Nella Larsen. Charlottesville, VA, UP of Virginia, 1995. Hutchinson, George. In Search of Nella Larsen: A Biography of the Color Line. Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press. 2006.

Accomplishments Her first two novels sold well, earned her money, some fame, and recognition She received a Guggenheim Fellowship for creative writing and traveled to Europe, spending time in Mallorca and Paris working on a novel about a love triangle – the book was never published Along with Zora Neale Hurston, Larsen is considered one of the most important female voices of the Harlem Renaissance

Identity Larsen was of biracial parentage. She had light skin and fine hair and features She was considered legally black but wanted to identify herself with both races, black and white She was well-educated and married into Harlem’s black professional class She knew all of the figures of the Harlem Renaissance but was older than that generation and felt “more comfortable in the interracial bohemia of Greenwich Village than among the ‘Talented Tenth’

Passing Larsen’s novels are semi-autobiographical, and both deal with the issues of women’s identity. Passing deals with two women, Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield, who, like Larsen have the looks and breeding (education and training) to “pass” for white if they choose to. One does, and one doesn’t. The novel looks at the lives of the two when they meet again, examines the choices that each has made, and reveals the consequences of each woman’s decision.

Further Reading http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/la vender/386/nlarsen.html http://www.literarytraveler.com/authors/nella_ larsen_passing.aspx http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/c hap9/larsen.html http://www.literaryhistory.com/20thC/Larsen. htm