"Nellallitea "Nella"Larsen(born Nellie Walker (April 13,1891-March 30,1964)

Was an American novelist of the Harlem Renaissance.She published two novels and a few short short stories.Through her literary output was scant what she wrote earned her recognition by her contemporaries

and present-day critics.Nella went by various names throughout her life.She was born in Chicago,Illinois.Nellie was the daughter of Marie Hanson,a Danish immigrant,and Peter Walker,a West Indian man of color from Saint Croix,who soon disappeared from her life.Nellie mother was a domestic case worker in social service.After her mother married Peter Larsen,Scandinavian,she took his surname,also sometimes using Nellye Larson,Nellie Larsen.After she married she sometimes used her married name Nella Larsen Imes.As a child, she Nella lived several years with her mother's relatives in Denmark.In 1907-08,she briefly attended Fisk University,in Nashville,Tennessee,a historically black university.The biographer George Hutchinson speculates that she was expelled for some violations of Fisk's strict dress code or conduct;codes;she then spent four years in Denmark,before returning to the U.S.in 1914,Nella enrolled in the all-black nursing school at New York City;s Lincoln Hospital.Upon graduating in 1915,she went south to work at the Tuskegee Institute in Tuskegee, Alabama,where she became head nurse at its hospital and training school.While in Tuskegee,she came in contact with Booker T. Washington's model of education and became disilluioned with it.(Booker died shortly after Nella arrived at Tuskegee.)Working conditions for nurses at Tuskegee were poor;their duties included doing hospital laudry.Se lasted only until 1916.When she returned to New York to work as a nurse.In 1919,she married Elmer Imes,a prominent physicist who was the second African American to received a P.h.D in physics.A year later after her marriage,she published her first pieces.After working as a nurse through the Spanish Flu pandemic of 1918,she left nursing and became a Liberian.Nella and her family moved to Harlem,where she was in charge of the children section of the Countee Cullen Branch of the New York Public.After passing her certification exam in 1923.In October 1925,she took a sabbatical from her job for health reasons and began to write her first novel.In 1926,having made friends with important figures in the Negro Awakening that became the Harlem Renaissance,Nella gave her work as a Liberian.She began to work as a writer active in the literary community.In 1928,she published Quicksand a largely autobiographical novel,which received significant critical acclaim,if not great financial success.In 1929,she published Passing her second novel,which was also critically successful.Her book dealt with issues related to experiences of mixed-race women.In 1930,Nella published "Sanctuary,"a short for which she was accused of plagiarism.Her marriage was in trouble during this period."Sanctuary"resembled Shelia Kaye-Smith's short story "Mrs.Adis,"first published in the United Kingdom in 1919.Sheila wrote on rural themes,on was very popular in the US.Critics thought the basic plot "Sanctuary," and some of the descriptions and dialogue were virtually identical to her work.Compared to Shelia tale, "Sanctuary,"is...longer,better written and more explicitly political,specifically around issues of race-rather than class as in "Mrs Adis"Nella reworked and updated the tale into a modern American context. It is unknown whether she knew of the Nella controversy.No plagiarism charges were proved,and Nella received a Guggenheim Fellowship.She used it to travel to Europe for several years,spending time in Mallorca and Paris,where she worked on a novel about a love triangle.The three protagonist were all white:the book was never published.She later returned to New York in 1933after her divorce was complete.Nella lived on alimony until her ex-husband"s death,she returned to nursing.Nella disappeared from literary  circles.Nella lived on the Lower East Side,and did not venture into Harlem.Many of her old acquaintances speculated incorrectly that she,like some of the characters in her fiction,had crossed the color line to"pass"into the white community.Nella remained in New York,working as a nurse,and avoiding contact with her earlier friends and world.She died in her Brooklyn apartment.