The Creole Tourist's Guide And Sketch Book To The City Of New Orleans, With Map

CREOLE PUBLISHING COMPANY

Publication: Creole Publishing Company, 1910, New Orleans

126 pp + index, with illustrations from photographs, folding "Map of the City of New Orleans" as frontispiece. Black buckram boards with title in gilt on spine; original marbled endpapers, with original wrappers bound in. Donor's bookplate on front free endpaper, library bookplate (St. Mary's Dominican College, now defunct) on flyleaf, accession number stamped on title and one other page; no other markings. First edition of this interesting guide, which includes extensive historical information rather than typical listings of hotels, restaurants, and attractions, and is written in a style well suited to a city of such enduring allure. On the French Quarter, for example: "there, odd little balconies and galleries jut out from the tall, dingy, wrinkled houses, peering into each other's faces as if in eternal confab. There, queer little shops are to be found, apothecaries and musty stores where old furniture, brasses, bronzes, and books are sold, bird stores innumerable, where alligators are to be purchased as well -- all these lying in a sort of half doze." And in the Creole neighborhood near the Old Cathedral, "where Chartres Street, buzzing and lazily bustling, widens out into the broad, green smile of a public square...a hot rush of wind from the river, sweetened by filtration through the rose patches of the green Venetian blinds at the white windows, and whipping at the long curtains of knotted cord over certain of the open doorways....Groups of men chattering over their cigarettes interfere with pedestrianism in the alley, and stare with Gallic curiosity and gallantry after every petticoated individual that passes.....Try speaking English to any of the dwellers in this neighborhood and one is answered in their own caressing accents and delicious dialects." Readers are treated to fascinating tales of carnival, Voodoo, "gruesome executions," and, of course, cemeteries. The 12" x 15" map, which is sponsored by Fabacher's New Rathskeller Restaurant ("For Good German Cooking See Inside of Map"), shows rail lines and includes a street directory and a short list of points of interest, including parks, public squares, and markets. It has two small browned spots and a small tear near the gutter that has been mended with archival tape on the verso.

Inventory Number: 51985