Nella Larsen was an American novelist. Working as a nurse and a librarian, she published two novels, Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929), and a few short stories. Though her literary output was scant, she earned recognition by her contemporaries. A revival of interest in her writing has occurred since the late 20th century, when issues of racial and sexual identity have been studied. 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." Nella Larsen was born Nellie Walker on this date in 1891, in Chicago.  Her mother was a Danish immigrant, and her father was Peter Walker, a mixed-race Afro-Caribbean immigrant from the Danish West Indies. Her father disappeared from the family, and her mother then married Peter Larsen, a fellow Danish immigrant. Nella took her stepfather's surname. The mixed family encountered discrimination because of Nella. The American author Darryl Pinckney wrote of her anomalous situation: "... as a member of a white immigrant family, she had no entrée into the world of the blues or of the black church. If she could never be white like her mother and sister, neither could she ever be black in quite the same way that Langston Hughes and his characters were black. Hers was a netherworld, unrecognizable historically and too painful to dredge up." In 1921, Larsen worked as a volunteer with librarian Ernestine Rose, to help prepare for the first exhibit of "Negro art" at the New York Public Library. Encouraged by Rose, she became the first black woman to graduate from the NYPL Library School, earning her certification as a librarian in 1923. In 1925, she took a sabbatical and began to write her first novel. She became friends with important figures in the Negro Awakening, which became known as the Harlem Renaissance. She was the first African-American woman to receive a Guggenheim Fellowship. In later life, she returned to nursing and became an administrator. Larsen died in her Brooklyn apartment in 1964, at the age of 72. Wikipedia has way more on her fascinating writings and career. Recommended reading! Credit: https://w.wiki/LDWJ Portrait: James Allen, Public Domain I was registered to ride the Tierra Bella century yesterday, but when I got to the start in Gilroy at 6:30 a.m., it was raining, hard sometimes, and I'm not tough enough, so I bailed. Also, I'm still quite sure I'm not up to a century, even in good weather. So, today, determined to find out how much endurance I have, I planed a relatively long ride, with lots of climbing. And the whole ride was great! I was afraid I'd get rained on, and I did, starting on Glenwood. Just a little rain, but enough to make me cold. And I took a tip from the "preparation" emails from the Wine Country Century and the Erie Canal Tour: To start riding like those rides, with several good breaks to stretch and rest. So, after most of the climbing, I stopped for some time at Sky Park to stretch and rub my feet. And lots of nutrition! And then more briefly at Covered Bridge and Roaring Camp. But then the climb over Graham Hill really wiped me out. By the time I got back to Santa Cruz, I had to rest and stretch again before I could make it up to and over the corkscrew. Until then, I was considering going up the coast a bit to make it a metric century, but I barely dragged myself back to the van. So, a good learning experience. I can probably do a metric century, but not yet a century. I'll plan a longer ride with more stops and a little less climbing and carry a sandwich.