Nella Larsen
2020
Novelist · Nurse · Librarian
Nella Larsen was an acclaimed novelist of the Harlem Renaissance. Larsen is best known for her two novels, Passing (1928) and Quicksand (1929). These novels were well received, and viewed as strong pieces that represented mixed-race individuals and the struggles with identity that some inevitably still face today.
A revival of interest in her writing has occurred since the late 20th century, when issues of racial and sexual identity have been studied. There have been some arguments that Larsen’s work did not well represent the “New Negro” movement because the main characters in her novels were confused and struggling with their race. But, others argue that her work was a raw and important representation of how life was for many people, especially females, during the Harlem Renaissance.
Larsen’s novel Passing was adapted into a film of the same name in 2021.
Nella Larson was born April 13, 1891 in a poor district of south Chicago to a white mother from Denmark and a mixed black father. After her father disappeared, Nella’s mother remarried a fellow Danish immigrant, and they had a daughter in 1892. The mixed family moved west to a mostly white neighborhood of German and Scandinavian immigrants, but encountered discrimination because of Nella. They eventually moved a few blocks east.
“Lies, injustice, and hypocrisy are a part of every ordinary community. Most people achieve a sort of protective immunity, a kind of callousness, toward them. If they didn’t, they couldn’t endure.”
Throughout her life, Nella spent several years living in Denmark, but always returned to the U.S.
In 1914, Larsen enrolled in the nursing school at New York City’s Lincoln Hospital and Nursing Home, and graduated in 1915. She worked as a nurse for several years, and in 1919, she married Elmer Imes, a prominent physicist. A year after her marriage, she published her first short stories.
The couple moved to Harlem in the 1920s, where their marriage and life faced difficulties. Being married to a physicist, she was a member of Harlem’s black professional class. But since she herself did not have a college degree and came from ‘low birth’ and mixed parentage, she was alienated from the black middle class.
“Have you ever stopped to think how much unhappiness and downright cruelty are laid to the loving kindness of the Lord? And always by His most ardent followers, it seems.”
In 1921 Larsen worked nights and weekends as a volunteer at the New York Public Library. She went on to become the first black woman to graduate from the NYPL Library School, and eventually transferred to the Harlem branch.
In October 1925, Larsen took a sabbatical from her job, and began writing her first novel. In 1928, Larsen published Quicksand, a largely autobiographical novel.
In 1929, she published Passing, which was also a critical success. 1930, Larsen became the first Black woman to win a Guggenheim Fellowship. She used the money to travel throughout Europe for several years. In 1933, Imes and Larsen divorced, and she returned to New York in 1937. She was given a generous alimony in the divorce, which gave her financial security until Imes's death in 1941. Struggling with depression, Larsen stopped writing and disappeared from her former life. After her ex-husband's death, Larsen returned to nursing and became an administrator. Larsen died in her Brooklyn apartment in 1964, at the age of 72.