Annie Greene Nelson

Annie Greene Nelson is South Carolina's first known black woman novelist of the twentieth century. Despite having published three novels and many other literary works, Nelson is virtually unrecognized by the general public except in her hometown of Carterville, South Carolina, and Columbia, South Carolina, where she has made her home for more than half her life; however, many are gradually recognizing the importance of her works, which were reprinted in the middle seventies.

During the 1940s and 1950s when many writers loathed the minstrel tradition and were faced with the dilemma of writing on "universal" topics or protest literature, Nelson wrote fictitious stories about blacks and whites interacting harmoniously against an imaginary backdrop of tightly-knit communities of teachers, preachers, and elders. Like Victorian heroines, the female characters are vulnerable and committed to their families and friends. They look to the community for identity, affirmation, and recognition.

After the Storm (1942), for example, is an inspirational tale of an innocent Christian girl who loses her social position by becoming pregnant out of wedlock and then regains her social standing by marrying a physician and living a life of service. Nelson's second published novel, The Dawn Appears (1944)--divided into two sections, one evaluating the moral character of an unwed mother and one exploring the religious and patriotic fervor of a struggling couple during the Second World War--follows a similar strand of assessing morality, chastity, democracy, social acceptance and rejection, and race relations. Although the first two novels were published by a local black publisher, Hampton Printing Company, Nelson published and distributed her third novel, Don't Walk On My Dreams (1961). In her unpublished autobiography, Letters to Paw, which included a series of letters written to her father, Nelson details her family history and openly discusses lynchings, murder, and the civil rights movement.

Annie Greene was born on December 1, 1901, the first of thirteen children born to Sylvester Greene and Nancy (Muldrow) Greene. She grew up on Parrott's Plantation in Darlington County, South Carolina, where her father worked as a sharecropper and a music teacher.

Her talent as a writer was recognized in her early youth. Out of affection for her class sweetheart, Nelson wrote "Sugar is sweet, lard is greasy, if you love me honey, don't be uneasy." She later continued the rhapsody, "As the grass grows in the pine, you're my darling all the time." (Maryemma Graham interview with Annie Greene Nelson, June 1986).

Nelson graduated from Voorhees College in Denmark, South Carolina, in 1923, receiving her degree in education and nursing. She served as a schoolteacher, librarian, and textbook binder during the Works Progress Administration (WPA) period. Her employer, Catherine Wheeler, then head librarian at Columbia's black library, commented that Nelson spent more time reading than working at the library (Maryemma Graham interview with Catherine Wheeler, June 1987). Additionally, Nelson admits she was the founder and teacher of the first kindergarten for black children in Columbia, South Carolina. Her career as a nurse lasted twenty years, and at age eighty, Nelson went back to college to study the performing arts to improve her acting. She used this training in her one-woman show, Happenings on the Parrot Plantation.

Nelson devoted some of her time to community organizations and activities. She was a volunteer in the community during the Great Depression and again during World War II. For two years she was a member of the YWCA board. She was also president of the C. A. Johnson High School Parent-Teachers Association, and treasurer of the Drew Park Mothers Organization.

Nelson suggests that the reason she is largely unknown outside of South Carolina is her devotion to her six children and her husband, which she considered a high priority. "I had a chance to do better with my books, but I wouldn't have left my husband or children to push [the books] for anything," said Nelson. "The happiest moments of my life have been my children" (Maryemma Graham interview with Annie Greene Nelson, June 1986). A widow when she married Edward Nelson in 1935, Annie Greene Nelson is now a great-great-grandmother.

Nelson's unpublished works include a song, "I Wish You Were Here Tonight"; the play, Parrott's Plantation; and a musical drama, The Weary Fireside Blues, which may have been patterned after the well-known collection by Langston Hughes. Nelson is in great demand as a speaker at many high schools and colleges and has received many awards, including a Budweiser of Columbia Community Drama Award (1980-1981) and the Arts Award for Excellence in the Arts from the Columbia Urban League (1982). She was also honored in 1987 by Benedict College with a testimonial and special exhibition of her works and by the South Carolina Humanities Council.

After having contributed to black American and mainstream literature, Annie Greene Nelson is currently writing about the experience of growing old. The book's proposed title is 80, So What?