Louisiana Sojourns : Travelers' Tales and Literary Journeys

by de Caro, Frank

• ISBN13: 9780807122402
• ISBN10: 0807122408
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-06-01
• Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr

Summary

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. The seventy-six pieces that Frank de Caro has selected give readers a vivid sense of how Louisiana's unique blend of Old World, South, the exotic, and quin-tessential 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. Book jacket.

Table of Contents

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