Nella Larsen
| Nella Larsen | |
|---|---|
Nella Larsen in 1928
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| Born |
Nellie Walker April 13, 1891 Chicago, Illinois |
| Died | March 30, 1964 (aged 72) Brooklyn, New York City |
| Other names | Nellallitea Larsen, Nellye Larson, Nellie Larsen, Nella Larsen Imes |
| Alma mater | Fisk University, Lincoln Hospital nursing school, NYPL Library School at Columbia University |
| Occupation | Novelist, librarian, nurse |
| Employer | Tuskegee Institute, Lincoln Hospital, New York City Bureau of Public Health |
| Notable work | Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929) |
| Movement | Harlem Renaissance |
| Spouse(s) | Elmer Imes |
| Parent(s) | Peter Walker, an Afro-Caribbean immigrant from the Danish West Indies and Marie Walker, née Hansen |
| Awards | Guggenheim Fellowship |
Nellallitea "Nella" Larsen, born Nellie Walker (April 13, 1891 – March 30, 1964), was an American novelist of the Harlem Renaissance. Working as a nurse and a librarian, she published two novels, Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929), and a few short stories. Though her literary output was scant, she earned recognition by her contemporaries. A revival of interest in her writing has occurred since the late 20th century, when issues of racial and sexual identity have been studied. Her works have been the subjects of numerous academic studies and she is now widely lauded "not only the premier novelist of the Harlem Renaissance, but also an important figure in American modernism."
Nella Larsen was born Nellie Walker in a poor district of Chicago known as the Levee, on April 13, 1891, the daughter of Peter Walker, likely a mulatto Afro-Caribbean immigrant from the Danish West Indies and Marie Walker, née Hansen, a Danish immigrant. Her mother was a seamstress and domestic worker. Her father was likely a mixed-race descendant of Henry or George Walker, white men from Albany, New York, who settled in the Danish West Indies about 1840. In that Danish society, racial lines were more fluid and Walker may never have identified as "Negro." He soon disappeared from the lives of Nella and her mother; she said he had died when she was very young. At this time, Chicago was filled with immigrants but the Great Migration had not begun from the South, and the black population was 1.3% in 1890 and still only 2% in 1910, near the end of her childhood on the South Side.
Her mother, Marie, married Peter Larsen, a fellow Danish immigrant, by whom she had another daughter, Anna. Nellie took her stepfather's surname, sometimes using versions spelled as Nellye Larson, Nellie Larsen, and finally on Nella Larsen. The mixed family moved west to a mostly white neighborhood of German and Scandinavian immigrants, but encountered discrimination. When Nella was eight, they moved a few blocks back east. The author and critic Darryl Pinckney wrote of her anomalous situation:
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