About Nella Larsen
Nella Larsen (born Nellie Walker) was an American novelist, nurse, and librarian. She published two novels–Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929)–and a few short stories. A revival of interest in her writing has occurred since the late 20th century. Her works have been the subjects of numerous academic studies involving issues of racial and sexual identity, and she has been lauded as "not only the premier novelist of the Harlem Renaissance, but also an important figure in American modernism." == Early life and education == Nella Larsen was born Nellie Walker, in a poor district of south Chicago known as the Levee, on April 13, 1891 (though Larsen would frequently claim to have been born in 1893). Her mother was Pederline Marie Hansen, an ethnically Danish immigrant, born in 1868 in Bernstorfsminde, a small hamlet in the parish of Brahetrolleborg. Migrating to the USA around 1886 and going by the name Mary, Larsen's mother worked as a seamstress and domestic worker in Chicago. Larsen's father was Peter Walker, a "colored" immigrant from the Danish West Indies (now the U.S. Virgin Islands). Walker and Hansen filed an application for a marriage license in 1891, indicating a clear intent to marry around the time Nella Larsen was born. Despite the application, an actual license or record of the ceremony has not been found in historical archives. Walker was probably a descendant on his paternal side of Henry or George Walker, white men from Albany, New York, who were known to have settled in the Danish West Indies in about 1840.
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