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Author:

Hutchinson, George, 1953-

Title:

In search of Nella Larsen : a biography of the color line / George Hutchinson.

Publisher:

Belknap Press of Harvard University Press,

Copyright Date:

2006

Description:

x, 611 p. : ill., ports. ; 25 cm.

Subject:

Larsen, Nella.
Novelists, American--20th century--Biography.
African American novelists--Biography.
Harlem (New York, N.Y.)--Intellectual life--20th century.
Harlem Renaissance.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (p. 491-591) and index.

Contents:

Nellie Walker -- Inheriting the color line, 1892-1898 -- State Street years, 1899-1907 -- Turning south: Nashville and Fisk, 1907-1908 -- Coming of age in Copenhagen, 1908-1912 -- A Black woman in white: New York, 1912-1915 -- Rebel with a cause: Tuskegee, 1915-1916 -- A nurse in the Bronx, 1916-1919 -- Sojourner in Harlem: the dawn of the "Renaissance," 1919-1923 -- Rooms full of children: Seward Park and Harlem, 1923-1924 -- High Bohemia, 1925 -- The new Negro, model 1926 -- Quicksand -- In the Mecca, 1927 -- Year of arrival, 1928 -- Passing -- A star in Harlem, 1929 -- Trouble in mind, 1930 -- A novelist on her own, 1930-1932 -- The crack-up, 1932-1933 -- Letting go, 1933-1937 -- The recluse on Second Avenue, 1938-1944 -- Nella Larsen Imes, R.N.

Summary:

Born to a Danish seamstress and a black West Indian cook in one of the Western Hemisphereʼs most infamous vice districts, Nella Larsen (1891-1964) lived her life in the shadows of Americaʼs racial divide. She wrote about that life, was briefly celebrated in her time, then was lost to later generations- only to be rediscovered and hailed by many as the best black novelist of her generation. In his search for Nell Larsen, the ʺmystery woman of the Harlem Renaissance,ʺ George Hutchinson exposes the truths and half-truths surrounding this central figure of modern literary studies, as well as the complex reality they mask and mirror. His book is a cultural biography of the color line as it was lived by one person who truly embodied all of its ambiguities and complexities. We see Larsen vividly as an often tormented modernist, from the trauma of her childhood to her emergence as a star of the Harlem Renaissance. Showing the links between her experiences and her writings, Hutchinson illuminates the singularity of her achievement and shatters previous notions of her position in the modernist landscape. Revealing the suppressions and misunderstandings that accompany the effort to separate black from white, his book addresses the vast consequences for all Americans of color-line cultureʼs fundamental rule: race trumps family. Book jacket.

ISBN:

9780674021808 (alk. paper)
0674021800 (alk. paper)

LCCN:

2005058129

Locations:

USUX851 -- Iowa State University - Parks Library (Ames)

BOPG851 -- Ames Public Library (Ames)

PNAX964 -- Northeast Iowa Community College Library - Calmar (Calmar)

UQAX771 -- Des Moines Area Community College Library - Ankeny (Carroll)

UNUX074 -- University of Northern Iowa - Rod Library (Cedar Falls)

PTAX572 -- Stewart Memorial Library (Cedar Rapids)

PLAX964 -- Luther College - Preus Library (Decorah)

OIAX792 -- Grinnell College (Grinnell)

OVUX522 -- University of Iowa Libraries (Iowa City)

UTAX115 -- Buena Vista University Library (Storm Lake)

WHPE115 -- Storm Lake Public Library (Storm Lake)