firewood” (250). One evening, she takes in Jim
Hammer, a fugitive from the law “with pale brown
eyes in which there was an odd mixture of fear and
amazement” (250–251). Hammer also happens to
be a friend of Poole’s son Obadiah. He announces
to Annie that he is in trouble because he has shot
another man and persuades her to hide him there
because that is what her son would urge her to do.
Poole is hiding under the covers in her bed when
the sheriff arrives with the body of Obadiah and re-
veals that Poole is the man who killed him. Despite
the awful tragedy and Hammer’s heinous betrayal,
Annie does not divulge his whereabouts to the po-
lice. When they leave, she gives in to a “raging
fury” and then orders him to “Get outen mah
feather baid, Jim Hammer, an outen mah house, an’
don’ nevah stop thankin’ you’ Jesus he done gib you
dat black face” (255). In a moment of supreme
charity, Annie spares Jim Hammer’s life. The story’s
powerful conclusion demonstrates the degree to
which racial solidarity can trump personal desire or
tragedy. It also honors the staggering example of
maternal charity that Annie Poole is able to muster
in the face of an overwhelming loss. She is clearly
unwilling to become complicit with the white
southern system in which African Americans are so
rarely granted equal or just treatment.
Shortly after the publication of “Sanctuary,”
Larsen was accused of plagiarizing the story. The
rumors began to circulate widely throughout the
Harlem Renaissance community. HAROLDJACK-
MAN, a longtime friend of COUNTEECULLEN, told
his friend that he had “literary dirt” to share and
noted that the work was “an exact blue print” of
another story. One of Larsen’s most vocal critics, he
urged Cullen to “get ahold of the Forum” and the
original story by Sheila Kaye-Smith, in order to
“compare them. But isn’t this a terrible thing,” he
wrote, “It remains to be seen whether the Forum
people will find this out” (Davis, 348). Additional
Larsen supporters included Countee Cullen, who
urged caution in assessing Larsen’s literary guilt,
and CARLVANVECHTEN, with whom Larsen so-
cialized often.
The original version of the tale, which featured
white characters rather than the African-American
figures whom Larsen used, was entitled “Mrs. Adis”
and was written by Sheila Kaye-Smith. The work ap-
peared in Joanna Godden Married, and Other Stories,a
collection of stories published in 1926. According to
Larsen biographer Thadious Davis, Jackman’s asser-
tions were correct even though class, rather than
race, explained the decision of Mrs. Adis. Although
both pieces shared striking similarities in structure,
imagery, and plot, Larsen defended her work as an
example of a standard story in African-American
culture. Her editors at Forumsupported her state-
ments, noting that she had submitted several drafts
to them before the piece was published.
The controversy surrounding the publication
of “Sanctuary” was enough to bring her promising
career to a halt. Although she began and com-
pleted two additional novels, she published neither
one. As the 1930s proceeded, she began to with-
draw from the literary and social circles in which
she had been active. The death of her husband
and the subsequent loss of alimony, combined with
her apparent literary caution, prompted her to re-
turn to nursing. In this new career, in which she
worked for some two decades, Larsen thoroughly
suppressed the literary career that she had enjoyed
and that had given her splendid opportunities for
travel and personal advancement.Bibliography
Davis, Thadious M. Nella Larsen, Novelist of the Harlem
Renaissance: A Woman’s Life Unveiled.Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University Press, 1994.
Kaye-Smith, Sheila. Joanna Godden Married, and Other
Stories.London: Cassell and Company Ltd., 1926.
Larson, Charles, ed. The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen.
New York: Anchor Books, 2001.San Juan Hill District
A neighborhood in Midtown Manhattan that be-
came home to many African Americans during the
Great Migration and Harlem Renaissance periods.
The community was home to such well-known fig-
ures as bibliophile ARTHURSCHOMBURGand his
family, and to Lionel Canegata, better known as
Canada Lee, a prizefighter and actor who starred
in and earned much acclaim for his performance in
the 1941 production of NATIVESON.Saturday Evening Quill
The literary magazine that the BOSTON-based
SATURDAYEVENINGQUILLCLUBpublished duringSaturday Evening Quill 465