Her works have been the subjects of numerous academic studies, and she is now widely lauded as "not only the premier novelist of the Harlem Renaissance, but also an important figure in American modernism.

[4] The mixed family moved west to a mostly white neighborhood of German and Scandinavian immigrants, but encountered discrimination because of Nella.

The American author and critic Darryl Pinckney wrote of her anomalous situation: as a member of a white immigrant family, she [Larsen] had no entrée into the world of the blues or of the black church.

[2]: 31  While she was unusual in Denmark because of being of mixed race, she had some good memories from that time, including playing Danish children’s games, which she later wrote about in English.

The institution was founded in the 19th century in Manhattan as a nursing home to serve black people, but the hospital elements had grown in importance.

After earning the second-highest score on a civil service exam, Larsen was hired by the city Bureau of Public Health as a nurse.

[2]: 7 In 1919, Larsen married Elmer Imes, a prominent physicist; he was the second African American to earn a PhD in physics.

As Pinckney writes: By virtue of her marriage, she was a member of Harlem's black professional class, many of them people of color with partially European ancestry.

[3][4] In 1921, Larsen worked nights and weekends as a volunteer with librarian Ernestine Rose, to help prepare for the first exhibit of "Negro art" at the New York Public Library (NYPL).

[8] Larsen transferred to the Harlem branch, as she was interested in the cultural excitement in the African-American neighborhood, a destination for migrants from across the country.

[9] In 1926, having made friends with important figures in the Negro Awakening (which became known as the Harlem Renaissance), Larsen gave up her work as a librarian.

It dealt with issues of two mixed-race African-American women who were childhood friends and had taken different paths of racial identification and marriage.

[12] "Sanctuary" was said to resemble the British writer Sheila Kaye-Smith's short story, "Mrs. Adis", first published in the United Kingdom in 1919.

[13] The scholar H. Pearce has disputed this assessment, writing that, compared to Kaye-Smith's tale, "Sanctuary" is "... longer, better written and more explicitly political, specifically around issues of race – rather than class as in 'Mrs Adis'.

[16] 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 in which all the protagonists were white.

"[17] What they overlooked is that during that time period, it was difficult for a woman of color to find a stable job that would also provide financial stability.

Nella Larsen's works are viewed as strong pieces that well represent mixed-race individuals and the struggles with identity that some inevitably face.

[25] There have been some arguments that Larsen’s work did not well represent the "New Negro" movement because of the main characters in her novels being confused and struggling with their race.

Crane is the lovely and refined mixed-race daughter of a Danish white mother and a West Indian black father.

Nella Larsen pursued a career in nursing while Helga married a preacher and stayed in a very unhappy marriage.

For example, Crane teaches at Naxos, a Southern Negro boarding school (based on Tuskegee University), where she becomes dissatisfied with its philosophy.

Crane moves to Harlem, New York, where she finds a refined but often hypocritical black middle class obsessed with the "race problem.

Crane had hoped to find sexual fulfillment in marriage and some success in helping the poor Southern blacks she lives among, but instead she has frequent pregnancies and suffering.

[13] For example, the New York Times reviewer found it "an articulate, sympathetic first novel" which demonstrated an understanding that "a novelist's business is primarily with individuals and not with classes.

[30] Larsen's novel Passing  begins with Irene receiving a mysterious letter from her childhood friend Clare, following their encounter at the Drayton Hotel, after twelve years with no communication.

"[32] Some later critics described the novel as an example of the genre of the tragic mulatto, a common figure in early African-American literature after the American Civil War.

In such works, it is usually a woman of mixed race who is portrayed as tragic, as she has difficulty marrying and finding a place to fit into society.

[33] Others suggest that this novel complicates that plot by playing with the duality of the figures of Irene and Clare, who are of similar mixed-race background but have taken different paths in life.

Others argue that through its attention to the way "passing" unhinges ideas of race, class, and gender, the novel opens spaces for the creation of new, self-generated identities.

[35] Since the late 20th century, Passing has received renewed attention from scholars because of its close examination of racial and sexual ambiguities and liminal spaces.