A NORTON CRITICAL EDITION Neila Larsen PASSING AUTHORITATIVE TEXT BACKGROUNDS AND CONTEXTS CRITICISM Edited by CARLA KAPLAN DAVIS DISTINGUISHED PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN LITERATURE, NORTHEASTERN UNIVERSITY W W NORTON & COMPANY New York London
Contents Introduction: Nella Larsen's Erotics of Race Acknowledgments A Note on the Text The Text of Passing Backgrounds and Contexts 83 REVIEWS 85 Mary Rennels "Passing" Is a Novel of Longings (April 27, 1929) 85 Beyond the Color Line (April 28, 1929) 85 Margaret Cheney Dawson The Color Line (April 28, 1929) 87 The Dilemma of Mixed Race: Another Study of the Color-line in New York (May 1, 1929) 88 Alice Dunbar-Nelson As in a Looking Glass (May 3, 1929) 90 W. B. Seabrook Touch of the Tar-brush (May 18, 1929) 91 Esther Hyman.Passing (June 1929) 93 Aubrey Bowser The Cat Came Back (June 5, 1929) 94 Mary Griffin Novel of Race Consciousness (June 23, 1929) 96 W. E. B. Du Bois Passing (July 1929) 97 Passing (July 1929) 99 Mary Fleming Larabee Passing (Aug. 1929) 99 Do They Always Return? (Sept. 28, 1929) 101 "M. L. H." Passing (Dec. 1929) 102 Passing (Dec. 12, 1929) 102 CONTEMPORARY COVERAGE OF PASSING AND RACE IO5 When Is a Caucasian Not a Caucasian? (March 2, 1911) 105 Writer Says Brazil Has No Color Line (Oct. 1925) 107 Don Pierson Does It Pay to "Pass?" (Aug. 20, 1927) 107 Juanita Ellsworth From White Negroes (May-June 1928) 109 3,000 Negroes Cross the Line Each Year (July 12, 1928) in i
i CONTENTS Louis Fremont Baldwin From Negro to Caucasion, Or How the Ethiopian Is Changing His Skin (1929) 112 Emilie Hahn Crossing the Color Line Quly 28, 1929) 117 Caleb Johnson From Crossing the Color Line (Aug. 26, 1931) 121 75,000 Pass in Philadelphia Every Day (Dec. 19, 1931) 123 Careful Lyncher! He May Be Your Brother (Jan. 21, 1932) 124 Blonde Girl Was 'Passing' (Jan. 23, 1932) 125 Virginia Is Still Hounding 'White' Negroes Who 'Pass' 126 THE RHINELANDER/jONES CASE 129 Society Youth Weds Cabman's Daughter (Nov. 14, 1924) 129 Poor Girl to Fight Hubby's Parents (Dec. 26, 1924) 130 From Calls Rhinelander Dupe of Girl He Wed (Nov. 10, 1925) 133 From Loved Rhinelander, Wife's Letters Say (Nov. 13, 1925) 134 From Rhinelander Bares Love Secrets (Nov. 21, 1925) 137 Archie Morgan From Kip's "Soul Message" Notes Read (Nov. 28. 1925) 138 From Rhinelander Jury Reaches a Decision after Twelve Hours 1 (Dec. 5, 1925) 145 [Rhinelander Editorial], The Crisis (Jan. 1926) 147 Rhinelander Gets a Fair Deal (Jan. 26, 1926) 147 Mrs. Rhinelander to Sail (July 16, 1926) 148 ABOUT NELLA LARSEN I49 Thelma E. Berlack New Author Unearthed Right Here in Harlem (May 23, 1928) 149 Mary Rennels Behind the Backs of Books and Authors (April 13, 1929) 150 [Letter about Nella Larseh] Jean Blackwell Hutson to Louise Fox (Aug. 1, 1969). 151 Author's Statements, ". 152 [Nella Larsen Imes, Guggenheim Application] 152 [In Defense of Sanctuary] 156 Letters 158 To Carl Van Vechten [ 192 5 ] 158 To Charles S. Johnson [Aug. 1926] 158 To Eddie Wasserman [April 3, 1928] 161 To Eddie Wasserman [April 5, 1928] 161 To Dorothy Peterson [n.d.] 162 To Dorothy Peterson [July 19, 1927] 163. To Dorothy Peterson [July 21, 1927] 164 To Dorothy Peterson [Aug. 2, 1927] 166 To Langston Hughes [n.d.] 167 To Langston Hughes [1930] 168 To Carl Van Vechten [April 15, 1929] 168
CONTENTS vii To Gertrude Stein (Jan. 26, 1931) 169 To Carl Van Vechten [May 14, 1932] 170 THE TRAGIC MULATTO(A) 171 Lydia Maria Child The Quadroons 171 Frank J.Webb From The Garies and Their Friends 180 William Wells Brown From Clotel 192 Frances E. W. Harper From lola Leroy 200 William Dean Howells From An Imperative Duty 207 Kate Chopin The Father of Desiree's Baby 213 Mark Twain From Pudd'nhead Wilson 218 Charles Waddell Chesnutt From The House Behind the Cedars 220 Georgia Douglas Johnson The Octoroon 227 Countee Cullen Near White 227 Langston Hughes Mulatto 227 Fannie Hurst From Imitation of Life 229 SELECTIONS FROM STORIES AND NOVELS OF PASSING: "THE MOMENT OF REGRET" 243 Frances E. W. Harper From lola Leroy 243 James Weldon Johnson From The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man 248 Walter White From Flight 257 Jessie Redmon Fauset From Plum Bun 262 George S. Schuyler From Black No More 270 Langston Hughes Passing 281 SELECTED WRITINGS FROM THE HARLEM RENAISSANCE 285 Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr. The Mulatto to His Critics 285 Jessie Redmon Fauset The Sleeper Wakes 285 Countee Cullen Heritage 308 Countee Cullen Two Who Crossed a Line 311 W. E. B. Du Bois Criteria of Negro Art 312 Nella Larsen [Pseud. Allen Semi] Freedom 320 George S. Schuyler From The Negro-Art Hokum 324 Carl Van Vechten From Nigger Heaven 326 Langston Hughes Passing for White, Passing for Colored, Passing for Negroes Plus 332 Criticism 335 Mary Mabel Youman Nella Larsen's Passing: A Study in Irony 337 Claudia Tate Nella Larsen's Passing: A Problem of Interpretation 342 Mary Helen Washington Nella Larsen: Mystery Woman of the Harlem Renaissance 350
viii CONTENTS Cheryl A. Wall From Passing for What? Aspects of Identity in Nella Larsen's Novels 356 Deborah E. McDowell [From Black Female Sexuality in Passing] 363 Thadious M. Davis; Nella Larsen's Harlem Aesthetic 379 MarkJ. Madigan Front Miscegenation and "The Dicta of Race and Class": The Rhinelander Case and Nella Larsen's Passing 387 Jennifer DeVere Brody Clare Kendry's "True" Colors: Race and Class Conflict in Nella Larsen's Passing 393 Helena Michie From Sororophobia 409 Judith Butler Passing, Queering: Nella Larsen's Psychoanalytic Challenge 417 Ann ducille From Passing Fancies 435 George Hutchinson Nella Larsen and the Veil of Race 444 Kate Baldwin From The Recurring Conditions of Nella Larsen's Passing 463 Gayle Wald Passing and Domestic Tragedy 486 Catherine Rottenberg Passing: Race, Identification, and Desire 489 Miriam Thaggert Racial Etiquette: Nella Larsen's Passing and the Rhinelander Case 507 Nella Larsen: A Chronology 533 Selected Bibliography by Ruth Blandon, with help from Lucia Hodgson 539