Louisiana Sojourns: Travelers' Tales and Literary Journeys

by Frank de Caro (Editor)

Overview

A sweeping collection of observations and episodes penned by visitors to Louisiana from the sixteenth century to the 1990s, Louisiana Sojourns is—much like the state itself—a wonder to behold in its sum, and in its particulars, full of surprise and delight. The seventy-six pieces that Frank A. de Caro has selected give readers a vivid sense of how Louisiana's unique blend of Old World, South, the exotic, and quintessential America has exerted a pull and hold on travelers. Included are writings by well-known figures such as Mark Twain, Teddy Roosevelt, Kate Chopin, John Steinbeck, Frederick Law Olmsted, Walker Percy, William Faulkner, Simone de Beauvoir, Henry Miller, John James Audubon, Calvin Trillin, Zora Neale Hurston, A. J. Liebling, William Least Heat Moon, and Frederick Turner. Dozens of other wayfarers are represented as well.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807122396
Publisher:	Louisiana State University Press
Publication date:	05/01/1998
Pages:	608
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Frank A. de Caro was a professor emeritus of English at Louisiana State University, where he taught for thirty-four years. A former president of the Louisiana Folklore Society and the first chairman of the Louisiana Folklife Commission, he was the author or editor of several books, including Re-Situating Folklore: Folk Contexts and Twentieth-Century Literature and Art, coauthored by Rosan Augusta Jordan. He lived in New Orleans.

Table of Contents

	Preface to the Second Printing	xiii
	Preface	xvii
	The Importance of Passing Through: Traveler Writers in Louisiana	1
1	American Nile: The River	11
	Discovering the Mississippi's Mouth	14
	Vive le Roi: La Salle Reaches the Mississippi's Mouth	16
	A Near Ambush	19
	Entrance of the Mississippi	21
	Waiting for a Boat	24
	Steamboat Accommodations	26
	Gambling on the River	31
	Castles and Plantations	35
	The 1927 Flood	38
	Show-Boat	46
	Canoeing the Mississippi	51
	The Invisible Corridor	54
	Travel Update	61
2	A Splendid Bedlam of a City: New Orleans	69
	New Orleans in the 1760s	73
	Where Human Life Can Be Enjoyed	77
	Congo Square	78
	Parrots, Spider-Monkeys, and Sun Umbrellas	80
	The Levee	81
	Rain and Mosquitoes	82
	The French Quarter	86
	The French Market	89
	Episode	94
	Real Jazz	97
	In the Quarter	104
	New Orleans	107
	Between Trains	110
	Travel Update	118
3	A Haunting Thing: Plantation Realms	129
	A Visit to Valcour Aime Plantation	134
	St. James Parish Plantations	139
	Magnolia Plantation	147
	Plantation Life in Southern Louisiana	151
	"The Shadows"	155
	Weighing and Paying	168
	Travel Update	175
4	Telling the Story of Our Lives: The African American Presence	185
	The Runaway	189
	Slave Markets	195
	Fear of a Slave Uprising	200
	How the Slaves Celebrate Christmas	201
	The Cheerleaders	207
	A Certain Meeting South	218
	Free People of Color	226
	The Quadroon Ball	229
	The Quadroon Ballroom	231
	Travel Update	234
5	Never So Many Travel Accounts: The War	241
	New Orleans, Just After Secession	244
	Fleeing the Yankees	246
	A Very Swarthy and Travel-Stained Warrior	249
	Christmas at Marksville	258
	Taking the Oath	261
	Travel Update	267
6	Land Picturesque and Fertile: Cajun Country	273
	The Acadian Coast	278
	Acadians	280
	A Tour of the Acadian Country	282
	The Fais Do Do at Mamou	293
	Cajun Music	300
	South of the South	305
	Travel Update	316
7	Red Clay Hills and Piney-Woods: Central and North Louisiana	323
	The Post of the Ouachita	327
	Crossing Central Louisiana	331
	Manner in Which the Survey Was Made	337
	Nothing But a Little Pissant	350
	Travel Update	366
8	Where All Things Seem to Dream: Bayou, Marsh, Coast	371
	A World Apart	375
	Moss Pickers of the Lafourche Interior	381
	Dance of the Oyster Luggers	393
	Cruising the Marshes and Coast	399
	Grand Isle	405
	Sailing to Cheniere Caminada	412
	Travel Update	417
9	Sportsman's Paradise: Wildlife and the Natural Environment	419
	Ibis-Shooting in Louisiana	424
	Alligator Hunting	433
	In the Louisiana Canebrakes	438
	On the Road with John James Audubon	448
	Traveling on the Natural and Scenic Streams System	455
	Travel Update	464
10	Cowboy's Shangri-La: Festivals, Feasts, and Other Diversions	475
	A Journey Through Mardi Gras	480
	Country Mardi Gras	496
	A Cockfight	500
	Bonfires on the Levee	506
	An Attempt to Compile the Definitive History of Didee's Restaurant	509
	Travel Update	518
11	The World of the Spirits	525
	Holy Week	528
	Cities of the Dead	532
	The Element of True African Worship	534
	A Voodoo Dance	538
	A Voodoo Initiation	545
	Travel Update	556
	Index	567