Inventing New Orleans: Writings of Lafcadio Hearn

by S. Frederick Starr (Editor), S. Frederick Starr (Editor)

Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) prowled the streets of New Orleans from 1877 to 1888 before moving on to a new life and global fame as a chronicler of Japan. Hearn's influence on our perceptions of New Orleans, however, has unjustly remained unknown. In ten years of serving as a correspondent and selling his writing in such periodicals as the New Orleans Daily Item , Times-Democrat , Harper's Weekly , and Scribner's Magazine he crystallized the way Americans view New Orleans and its south Louisiana environs. Hearn was prolific, producing colorful and vivid sketches, vignettes, news articles, essays, translations of French and Spanish literature, book reviews, short stories, and woodblock prints. He haunted the French Quarter to cover such events as the death of Marie Laveau. His descriptions of the seamy side of New Orleans, tainted with voodoo, debauchery, and mystery made a lasting impression on the nation. Denizens of the Crescent City and devotees who flock there for escapades and pleasures will recognize these original tales of corruption, of decay and benign frivolity, and of endless partying. With his writing, Hearn virtually invented the national image of New Orleans as a kind of alternative reality to the United States as a whole. S. Frederick Starr, a leading authority on New Orleans and Louisiana culture, edits the volume, adding an introduction that places Hearn in a social, historical, and literary context. Hearn was sensitive to the unique cultural milieu of New Orleans and Louisiana. During the decade that he spent in New Orleans, Hearn collected songs for the well-known New York music critic Henry Edward Krehbiel and extensively studied Creole French, making valuable and lasting contributions to ethnomusicology and linguistics. Hearn's writings on Japan are famous and have long been available. But Inventing New Writings of Lafcadio Hearn brings together a selection of Hearn's nonfiction on New Orleans and Louisiana, creating a previously unavailable sampling. In these pieces Hearn, an Anglo-Greek immigrant who came to America by way of Ireland, is alternately playful, lyrical, and morbid. This gathering also features ten newly discovered sketches. Using his broad stylistic palette, Hearn conjures up a lost New Orleans which later writers such as William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams used to evoke the city as both reality and symbol. Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) was a prolific writer, critic, amateur engraver, and journalist. His many books-on a diverse range of subjects-include La Cuisine A Collection of Culinary Recipes (1885), Gombo Zhebes (1885), Chita (1889), and Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan (1894).

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Essays, Travel, Journalism, Criticism

266 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2001

About the author

Stephen Frederick Starr (born March 24, 1940) is an American expert on Russian and Eurasian affairs, a musician, and a former college president, having served as President of Oberlin College for 11 years.

Reviews

[Teresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Editor S. Frederick Starr has selected from Lafcadio Hearn's voluminous writings about New Orleans examples that fit into four categories: "impressions" (Hearn was not a native New Orleanian, though he lived and worked here for ten years); "sketches"; "editorials" (Hearn wrote these for a N.O. newspaper and they proved very popular); and "field studies," selections from Hearn's longer works, La Cuisine Creole and Gombo Zhebes: Little Dictionary of Creole Proverbs, neither of which I feel inclined to read, so I was happy to have these samplings.

In his introduction Starr sets out his theory that Hearn created a vocabulary for the way New Orleanians viewed and still view themselves and their city, and that this vision of the city has been carried to 'outsiders' through art (once predominately literature, now movies) and exists to the present-day. Seeing that I was astounded while reading The New Orleans of Lafcadio Hearn: Illustrated Sketches from the Daily City Item, edited by Delia Labarre, at how much in the city has not changed from Hearn's time here (1878-1888), I was already more than inclined to agree with Starr's theory.

The book edited by Labarre (which I read before this one) seems to have been birthed from this book. In his acknowledgments Starr credits Labarre as an assistant editor (though her name is not on the cover or the title page), stating that she also identified many works previously anonymous as being Hearn's. I'm guessing there were so many illustrated sketches Starr couldn't include that Labarre decided to put together her own book. Why waste good research?

Here is some lagniappe for you, a Creole proverb:

Tou jwé sa jwé; me bwa là zòrè sa pa jwé. (Tout [façon dej jouer c'est jouer; mais enfoncer du bois dans l'oreille n'est pas jouer.)
"All play is play; but poking a piece of wood into one's ear isn't play."--[Guyana.]

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

The single-most amazing thing about Lafcadio Hearn's writings on New Orleans is how many of them are not only applicable today but startlingly so. I can wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand the true spirit of this city - though these missives were penned between 1877 and 1888 they remain vibrant and viable. I want to belabor this point - he arrived one hundred and thirty-five years ago and describes the city as it stands today. This speaks volumes not only about how resistant to change this city is but also Hearn's ability to discern its true nature, to pick out and clean its bones.

Some of the more subtle discussions won't really register to those who haven't spent some time down here. One example: the reader can ingest all the words he or she wants regarding the dampness of our winters - perhaps even imagining that Hearn is exaggerating for effect - and yet not totally understand without having suffered a winter's worth of that wet chill. Still, even with the parts that can't be appreciated without firsthand experience this book serves as an incredible guide to that which makes New Orleans New Orleans.

There are five parts to this book, and I'm offering up a quick tour.

the introduction - skip it, as Starr (the editor) likes to hear himself type. Read it at the end if you're so inclined, but the important thing to understand is that Hearn wasn't from New Orleans originally so what he writes at the beginning is the ritual of the newcomer's infatuation.

I. The Outsider As Insider: Impressions - some 95 pages and the true heart of the book. If you only have time for a little bit, start here and read it all.

When Hearn arrived the city was already old (by the abbreviated American metric) and falling apart:

I have spoken with enthusiasm of the beauty of New Orleans; I must speak with pain of her decay. The city is fading, mouldering, crumbling - slowly but certainly.

Ever wondered what 'creole' really means down here?

It only remains to observe that the Creoles of New Orleans and of Louisiana (whatever right any save Spaniards may have originally had to the name), are all those native-born who can trace back their ancestry to European immigrants or to European colonists of the State [...] But the term is generally understood here as applying to French residents, especially those belonging to old French families, and few others care to claim the name.

There is, however, a very select and cultivated circle of citizens in New Orleans who are especially proud of the name, and who unite all possible effort to make it an honor to those who bear it.

he also goes on to detail what separates a 'creole egg' from an 'American egg', a 'creole tomato' from an 'American tomato', and so forth.

He holds forth on Carnival:

A very considerable number of those who visit New Orleans at Carnival-time do so quite as much for the sake of seeing the city itself as of witnessing the great pageant. But during Mardi Gras the place is disguised by its holiday garb - almost as much so, indeed, as the King of the Carnival; the native picturesquesness of the quainter districts is overlaid and concealed by the artificial picturesquesness of the occasion. [...] The romantic charm of the old city is not readily obtained at such a time; the curious cosmopolitan characteristics that offer themselves to artistic eyes in other seasons are lost in the afflux of American visitors, and true local color is fairly drowned out by the colors of Rex ..."

I have these thoughts every year at Carnival and could not have said it better myself. He even mentions how the parades screw up traffic:

The physician or telegraph messenger who duty summons in an opposite direction at such a time must take to the middle of the street if he hopes to reach his destination.

Regarding the heat, physiology, and our work ethic:

The Northerner who decides to settle in New Orleans will find after the experience of a few summers in the Louisiana climate that he has become more or less physiologically changed by the struggle of his system with those novel atmospheric conditions to which it was obliged to adapt itself.

and a hundred other still-relevant quotes besides.

I have to give special mention to the contemporary reporting in this section regarding The Death of Marie Laveau ("Marie Laveau died yesterday at the advanced age of ninety-seven years") as well as St. John's Eve - Voudouism and The Last of the Voudoos. To read his detailed stories on his encounters with its practitioners is a treat.

The rest of the book is not as essential, though still entertaining.

II. From the Land of Dreams: Sketches - it's a toss-up in this section, but the most rewarding (and sometimes eerily prescient) selection is: Down Among the Dives: A Midnight Sketch, his story about wild and surreal underground celebrations.

III. Of Vices and Virtues - many of these items came directly from the newspapers in which they were published. Highlights include descriptions of just how corrupt and ineffective the New Orleans police force was (and it goes without saying it remains so to this day); an editorial about the city's inaction with regards to shutting down the opium dens that were spreading with alarming rapidity; a suggestion that the fire department be given crime duty, seeings as how they actually got things done; a lament for the number of murder victims in a city where the vast majority of perpetrators got away scott free; a scathing rebuke regarding the police force and hooliganism; and many others besides. One in particular that always gets me is his condemnation of the state of our cemeteries, with weeds growing and mausoleums falling apart - something I myself have photographed just a few years ago. Everything Hearn wrote here 130 years ago just goes to show that the more things change the more they stay the same.

IV. Reports from the Field - the shortest by far, but some great introduction to the real meaning of Creole cuisine as well as a compilation of Creole proverbs.

In case it's not obvious, I love this book. His adoration for this place shines through in every page, even when he's complaining about the myriad problems he faced.

I'll close with what is likely Hearn's most famous quote, one with which I fully agree:

"Times are not good here. The city is crumbling into ashes. It has been buried under a lava flood of taxes and frauds and maladministrations so that it has become only a study for archaeologists. Its condition is so bad that when I write about it, as I intend to do soon, nobody will believe I am telling the truth. But it is better to live here in sackcloth and ashes than to own the whole state of Ohio."

[Marian Deegan · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of my favorite novelists is Robertson Davies. His many imaginative and erudite novels were chockablock with references to little known luminaries, and I would sigh with envy over his effortless access to the attic rooms and cellar corners of scholarly lexicon.

Davies always seemed to be plumbing dark literary corners and emerging clutching a handful of breathtaking observations by artistic geniuses utterly unfamiliar to me.

Discovering Lafcadio Hearn made me feel, just for a moment, as though I too finally knew the heady victory of uncovering treasure in an overlooked pile of moldering papers. Don't get me wrong. Hearn is a cream rich and inconsistent diet, and not occasionally overcrusted in anachronisms. But among his turn of the century stories of New Orleans are moments of achingly haunting prose.

This is an author to keep on your nightstand, with the thought that occasionally, you'll be in the mood to sip delicately from an intoxicating unpredictable source spiked with otherworldly undertones.

[Stephen Hull · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not a book by a great writer (to be fair, I've not read any of his Japanese works), but a fascinating insight into late 19th century New Orleans which, for a fan of the music that came out of there, was sufficient. Oh, and a wonderful dictionary of Creole proverbs at the end.

[Patrick McCoy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lafcadio Hearn is famous in Japan for his collection of ghost stories, Kwaidan. But I was unaware of his American writings before I came across references to them in the HBO series Treme. Earlier this year I decided to read Japan An Attempt At Interpretation since it was a free ebook and I was planning on visiting one of his former homes, Kumamoto. Subsequently, I found this volume very academic and dry in tone and style. However, that is definitely not the case with Inventing New Orleans (2001-with collected pieces from 1877-1888). The book is organized into four sections: 1. "The Outsider as Insider: Impressions," 2. "From the Land of Dreams: Sketches," 3. "Of Vices and Virtues: Editorials," 4. "Reports from the Field: Longer Studies." In the first section, several pieces are drawn from his journalism in which he strove to understand his new home-he had moved from Ohio where he had lived for a decade. The editor of this volume, S. Frederick Starr, calls this approach "affectionate impressionism" and suggest it colored his Japan writings as well. Some of the more interesting pieces for me were: "The Last of the New Orleans Fencing Masters," "Executions," ""St.John's Five-Voudousim," and "The Last of the Voudoos." The second section is mainly a collection of sketches from his time at The Daily City Item that was struggling and gave him free reign to share his entertaining perspective of the city. The sketches that stood out for me included: "--! ---!! Mosquitoes!" "A Creole Type," "A Kentucky Colonel Renting Rooms," "The Creole Character," "Does Climate Affect the Character of People?" it becomes apparent that Hearn is not all accepting of everything in his new home, part Three is a collection of his editorials. These include: "The Opium Dens," "Blackmailing," "Improved Police Ideas," "The Unspeakable Velocipede," "The Organ Grinder." The last section allows him to compile the following: "La Cuisine Creole" and "Gombo Zhebes: Little Dictionary of Creole Proverbs Selected from Six Creole Dialects." These sketches were written more than 100 years ago, but in several respects many of his observations are still valid today. Here are some of Hearn's more astute musings:

-It is not an easy thing to describe one's first impression of New Orleans; for while it actually resembles no other city upon the face of the earth, yet it recalls vague memories of a hundred cities.

Whencesoever the traveler may have come, he may find in the Crescent City some memory of his home-some recollection of his Fatherland-some remembrance of something he loves...

As we bear the tropics decay becomes more rapid-not only material decay of substance, but decay of social conditions and institutions as well.

I look forward to seeing first hand, how well his impressions of New Orleans have stood the test of time

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a great book to have sitting around to read at your leisure. The introduction is way too academic. I get enough of that in my "real life". It is scary how very little about New Orleans has changed over the centuries. Anyone who loves New Orleans will enjoy most of the essays. It just isn't a book that you can sit down and read in large chunks. I have to admit that I skipped over some of the essays that didn't hold my attention. For those of you who have seen Treme, this is the book that John Goodman's character reads to his English literature class.

[Dianne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why have we never heard of the man who invented New Orlean's very identity-was a scholar a prolific genius at people groups and the first chronicler of the culture of Creole, Cajun and people of color, their lives, custom and food? This guy. Travels when he gets done with that- ends up- in Japan, assimilates starts a family, and repeat!

[Phil Overeem · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're a freak for the Crescent City, this is an pretty essential read, though I did find my attention wandered. Hearn captures New Orleans in vivid detail as it stood from 1877 to 1888--in vivid detail, and extensive detail.

[Pambo Porterfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love Lafcadio Hearn's reflections and the fact that he writes unabashedly about the supernatural. The fact that he wrote in the late 1800's brings us closer to the roots of the story and perspective that can no longer be conceived by the imagination. He was a genius and ahead of his time.

[Hillary]

writings on his perceptions of new orleans in the late 1800s. i love "collections of" books...so far i highly recommend it

[Justin Howe]

From the man who coined the name "the Big Easy", this is a great collection of Hearn's news items written in New Orleans during the 1870s and 1880s.

[Regina Hart · Rating 3 out of 5]

An enjoyable first-person view into the life of mid-19th century New Orleans. I have to admit though that I much prefer Hearn's writings on Japan. The latter seem more polished and evocative.

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

This books really captures part of the soul and spirit of New Orleans that can still be found today. I could picture the steers and the air of the city. There phrases and ways of saying things that are still around today. The coffee culture reminded me of current coffee shops and local spots.

There are parts there dated and while the author was ahead of their time when it came to race, they will make you cringe.

[Jordan]

I am actually reading this and other Hearn in the Library of America edition and loving it.