Dixie Bohemia: A French Quarter Circle in the 1920s (Walter Lynwood Fleming Lectures in Southern History)
"What more could you ask for?--tales of the French Quarter in the 1920s as told with wit and insight by John Shelton Reed, author of books on the American South that surely define the region. He has brought to life a colorful and overlooked time and place in our country's cultural history."--Louise C. Hoffman, author ofJosephine Crawford: An Artist's Vision"John Shelton Reed is a renowned cultural essayist who writes as if he shared a balcony with the creative personalities who created a 1920s bohemian culture in the French Quarter. I can attest that Reed is too young a man for that. His generous viewfinder yields vivid profiles of young and struggling writers like Faulkner, Lyle Saxon, Hamilton Basso, and the artist Caroline Durieux, among many others. When I finished this book I felt as if a band was playing dirges for old friends passed away. But the cultural milieu they made, like the music, lives on."--Jason Berry, coauthor ofUp from the Cradle of Jazz: New Orleans Music Since World War II"This book is an informed and delightful addition for anyone who has ever lived in the French Quarter of New Orleans, or has felt the thrill of brushing against bohemia in any of its other hatcheries, whether New York's Greenwich Village, North Beach in San Francisco, or Montmartre and the Left Bank in Paris. The French Quarter has long nourished its artists, writers, and eccentrics, with anecdotal tidbits from earlier bohemias, but no one has, until now, given us a more concise and comprehensive picture of the mix of demimonde and haute culture of the 1920s circle that included William Faulkner and Sherwood Anderson.Dixie Bohemiais a superbly researched survey that resurrects the principal figures of the time and their far-flung connections and long-lasting influence."--Andrei Codrescu, author ofWhatever Gets You through the Night: A Story of Sheherezade and the Arabian Entertainments"John Shelton Reed is incapable of writing dull books, andDixie Bohemia: A French Quarter Circle in the 1920s,an absorbing expansion of his 2011 Fleming Lectures at Louisiana State University, is no exception."--The Journal of Southern History"Dixie Bohemiabeckons the myriad readers who appreciate he culture and history of the Crescent City." --The Southern Literary JournalJohn Shelton Reed is incapable of writing dull books, and Dixie Bohemia: A French Quarter Circle in the 1920s, an absorbing expansion of his 2011 Fleming Lectures at Louisiana State University, is no exception. --The Journal of Southern HisotryThis book is an informed and delightful addition for anyone who has ever lived in the French Quarter of New Orleans, or has felt the thrill of brushing against bohemia in any of its other hatcheries, whether New York's Greenwich Village, North Beach in San Francisco, or Montmartre and the Left Bank in Paris. The French Quarter has long nourished its artists, writers, and eccentrics, with anecdotal tidbits from earlier bohemias, but no one has, until now, given us a more concise and comprehensive picture of the mix of demimonde and haute culture of the 1920s circle that included William Faulkner and Sherwood Anderson.Dixie Bohemiais a superbly researched survey that resurrects the principal figures of the time and their far-flung connections and long-lasting influence. --Andrei Codrescu, author of Whatever Gets You through the Night: A Story of Sheherezade and the Arabian Entertainments