Born April 13, 1891

Chicago, Illinois

Died March 30, 1964

New York, New York

American novelist

Nella Larsen. (Courtesy of Beineke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.)

Nella Larsen struggled all her life with the question of where she belonged—in the black world or the white.

In the course of only a few years Nella Larsen produced two of the most accomplished novels of the Harlem Renaissance, and she was considered one of the period's most promising authors. Her work reflects her own experiences as a biracial person (she was the daughter of a white mother and a black father), focusing on the issues of identity and belonging that she and others of mixed racial heritage faced. Larsen is credited with moving away from casting the biracial individual as a "tragic mulatto," a common practice in nineteenth-century novels, and achieving more complex portrayals. Critics also praise her sensitive explorations of...