New Orleans the Place and the People

The work presented here is a popular history of New Orleans published in 1895 and covering the entire history of the city down to that date. It is written in a vivid, discursive style.Not as well-known as some of her contemporaries-Mark Twain, George W. Cable, and Joel Chandler Harris, to name a few-author and historian Grace King (1851- 1932) was nonetheless highly praised in her own right. She garnered attention from such eminent critics as William Dean Howells, and her work frequently appeared in Harper's and Century Magazine. She published thirteen volumes of fiction, history, biography, and memoir. What contributed to King's critical acclaim, and her continued importance across time, was the panoramic view of social and historical New Orleans that she captured in her writing. She was, scholar Robert Bush argues, one of the most talented and perceptive citizens of New Orleans during the post- Civil War period. In pursuing an intellectual career, King broke with many Old South traditions. She embraced Anglo-Saxon and Creole French cultures. Much of her work is especially interesting for the way in which her view of the southern temper and cultural contribution supplemented that of other writers of the period.-Print ed.