New Books Explore New Orleans Streets

Three recently published books, all non-fiction, present very different views of New Orleans places

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Three recently published books can be loosely collected under the banner of titles about home and place. All non-fiction, these books present very different views of New Orleans places: high-end decorating in some of the city’s historic homes, an index describing the historical origins of New Orleans’ street names, and a photography book that collects the sights and sounds of the Caribbean and Latin America, including New Orleans as its northernmost representative. In Bonnie Warren and Cheryl Gerber’s book New Orleans Historic Homes (Pelican Publishing), the reader is treated to the luxuriously decorated interiors of Pigeon Town shotguns, Bywater camelbacks, and Garden District mansions. The homes, while fairly classified as architecturally diverse, don’t necessarily represent the same range on the socio-economic spectrum, with each home reflecting a different grade of well-heeled-ness. The homes, not altogether surprisingly, are often the creations of landscape architects, interior designers, and artists—with a rare financial adviser here and there. It is a voyeur’s dream, with Cheryl Gerber’s sumptuous photographs and Bonnie Warren’s behind-the-scenes descriptions providing a peek into rooms that bloom with color and baroque excess. Very New Orleans.

Hope & New Orleans: A History of Crescent City Street Names (The History Press) by Sally Asher is a historical survey of street names in New Orleans. Street names, like place names in general, are an accessible starting point for examining the history of a place since the historical record seems to so permanently etch itself onto maps. In revealing the processes by which so many of the streets in New Orleans received their names, Asher also reveals the city’s deep, messy history, springing from its prosperous and enviable position on the Mississippi. Well-researched, the book is loosely organized into broad, whimsical chapters that capture historical patterns. We learn in the chapter “From Flags to Flag Boys: The Explorers and the Founders,” for instance, that New Orleans’ founder ingratiated himself to royals by naming all of its newly established streets after French royalty—even illegitimate royalty. We also come to understand the contributions of politicians, pirates, and prodigies in the “Silver Tongues, Silver Tips and Silver Keys” chapter, and the influence of plantation belles in the chapter “Exquisite Nepotism.” Enter here for a chance to win a copy of Hope & New Orleans.

Richard Sexton’s new book, Creole World: Photographs of New Orleans and the Latin Caribbean Sphere (The Historic New Orleans Collection), consists mostly of images from his travels in Latin America, the Caribbean, and New Orleans, his home. Introduced by a thoughtful historical essay on the variously defined word “Creole” by Jay D. Edwards and an essay recounting the photographic history of New Orleans’ built environment by John H. Lawrence, Sexton’s representations of place offer gritty, raw reality when compared to the staged interiors of Warren and Gerber’s book. But no less beautiful. Sexton revels in the deteriorating buildings, leveraging their very apparent age—crumbling facades, overgrown gardens, dusty sidewalks—to examine how evidence of deep history is beautiful in and of itself. And of course, New Orleans’ cultural relationship to its sibling cities to the south is a thread that runs throughout.

Fifty of the photographs that appear in Sexton’s book will be on exhibit at The Historic New Orleans Collection’s Laura Simon Nelson Galleries for Louisiana Art through December 7, 2014. 400 Chartres Street.

And right here on the Country Roads website, you can find Claire Bangser's new photo essay "The View from Porches," in which Bangser profiled several New Orleans residents in their most candid and natural setting: the porch. Bangser's essay can also be found in print in our May 2014 issue, now on stands.