Her quest this time takes her to Copenhagen, where her Danish relatives not only welcome but flaunt their dark family member, and for two years, Helga is feted. Though Helga lands a respectable job and is welcomed into Harlem middle-class society, she soon becomes dissatisfied again.

Hayes-Rore introduces Helga to Anne Gray, a wealthy Harlem widow who becomes her next benefactor. Hayes-Rore, an African American activist en route to New York. Alone and nearly broke, Helga finally obtains employment as a travel companion to Mrs. Uncle Peter's new wife rebuffs Helga at the door. She quits her job, breaks off her engagement, and travels to Chicago hoping to be welcomed into the family of her Danish American uncle. When the novel begins, Helga Crane has achieved high status as a teacher at Naxos (an African American college modeled after Tuskegee) and seems set for social success as the fiancée of James Vayle, a solid member of the Atlanta African American bourgeoisie. Quicksand is the story of Helga Crane, whose mixed heritage (she is the daughter of a Danish American mother and an African American father) complicates her quest for security and self-realization. Du Bois declared she had published “the best piece of fiction” by an African American since Charles Waddell Chesnutt. The New York Times Book Review proclaimed it had more “dignity” than most first novels and praised it for having a “wider outlook upon life” than writings by most African Americans. (Faint spots to edges, a couple of margins lightly marked.) Original orange cloth, spine and upper board lettered in gilt printed dust jacket (minor soiling, a few chips and tears to folds and upper panel).Nella Larsen's first published novel, appeared in 1928 and won the Harmon Foundation's bronze medal. Larsen’s second novel, Passing (1929), has been adapted into a film (2021). In 1923, Larsen became the first professionally-trained Black librarian and then in 1930 became the first Black woman to be awarded a Guggenheim fellowship. Her first novel, Quicksand (1928), is a largely autobiographical work concerning the struggle of Helga Crane, the mixed-race protagonist, to gain a sense of belonging in a highly racialized society.

Born to a Danish mother and a West Indian father, Nella Larsen is widely regarded as ‘the premier novelist of the Harlem Renaissance and a pioneer analyst of biracial identity’ (Shaffer).

Knopf, 1928.įirst edition of the author ’ s first novel, preserving the very scarce dust jacket.

Quicksand by Nella Larsen