Nella+Larsen

Nella Larsen,born Nella Walker, was born on April 13,1891, in Chicago Illinios was an American novelist and short story writer famously associated with the Harlem Renaissance era (1920's-1930's). Nella mother (Marie Hanson) was of Danish descent and her father (Peter Walker) was west Indian. Nella Larsen's appearance was much like that of Homer Plessy, a civil rights activist, who was 7/8 white and 1/8 black. Plessy believed that he should be entitled to all the rights and privileges of a white citizen. As a result, Plessy took his case to the Supreme Court which ruled for "separate but equal public facilities and institutions for non-white citizens Nella, being very light skinned wanted to be known as both black and white but she was considered legally black.

Nella being a novelis had many of her personal experiences, thoughts, idas, and beliefs contained in her books. Nella first novel was //Quicksand which was released in 1928. Nella's second novel, Passing, was released in 1929.// Both novels contained bits and pieces of Larsen's life. They involvef relief for women whose racial and sexual confusion contribute to their unfulfilled quest for an identity. Larson was a modern woman; because of that she addressed different women's related issues such as women's sexuality and power.

Nella married a physicist named Elmer S. Imes, on May 3, 1919, but fourteen years later divorced him in 1933 (Elmer was the second African American to revieve a Ph.D in physics). Nella was an extremely educated woman. She attended Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, from 1909 to 1910. She then continued her education at the university of Copenhagen from 1910 to 1912. She also studied nursing at Lincoln Hospital in New York City from 1912 until 1915. She then began her career as an assistant superintendent of nurses from 1915 to 1916, and became a nurse at Lincoln Hospital in New York City. Nella was diagnosed with a sickness in 1925 which led her a few years later to pursue her career as a writer.

LLarsen received a Guggenhein fellowship. She used it to travel to Europe for several years, spending time in Malloraco and Paris, and worked on a novel about a love triangle. The three protagonists were all white; the book was never published. Nella returned to New York in 1933 after her divorce was complete. She lived on alimony until her ex-husband's death in 1942. She was not writing (and never would again), was apparently depressed, and may have been using drugs. After her ex-husband's death, Larsen returned to nursing and disappeared from the literary circles with which she had previously travelled.

http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/386/nlarsen.html 2-28-09

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nella_Larsen 2-28-09