Nella Larsen

1
Nella Larsen

• Introduction and Passing

2
Nella Larsen(April 13, 1893-March 30, 1964)

• Photo by Carl Van Vechten

3
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.

4
Education

• Attended Fisk University in Nashville, TN
  1910-1912 studied at the University of Copenhagen
• 1912 enrolled in nursing school at New York
  Citys Lincoln Hospital graduated in 1915
• Attended library school at Columbia University

5
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 Librarys library school and became a
  childrens librarian in Manhattans Lower East
  Side

6
Works

• 1928 Quicksand largely autobiographical
• 1929 Passing
• 1930 Sanctuary, a short story she was accused
  of plagiarizing because it resembled the story of
  an English writer written in 1919

7
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

8
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 Harlems
  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

9
Passing

• Larsens novels are semi-autobiographical, and
  both deal with the issues of womens 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
  doesnt. 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 womans decision.

10
Bibliography

• http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nella_Larsen
• http//www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap9/la
  rsen.html
• http//www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/laven
  der/386/nlarsen.html
• http//voices.cla.umn.edu/vg/Bios/entries/larsen_n
  ella.html