New Orleans for Booklovers/Solid Evidence

Solid Evidence

   New Orleans native Hamilton Basso, author of Relics and Angels and Cinnamon Seed, studied law at Tulane University, but dropped out before receiving his degree. Charles Dufour, local historian and writer, claimed that he and Basso were both expelled.

   Truman Capote, who was born in New Orleans in 1924, created the non-fiction novel when he wrote In Cold Blood.

    Julie Smith won the Edgar Award in 1991 for New Orleans Mourning.

   One of the city's favorite sons, Tom Dent, a poet and the author of Southern Journey, lived and worked in New Orleans. Recently deceased, he is missed and loved by many.

    Audubon Zoo serves as the setting for much of The Great Divorce by Valerie Martin.

Walker Percy

Nancy Lemann

   Shelton Le Fleur falls from a tree in Audubon Park and his life is radically altered in John Gregory Brown's The Wrecked, Blessed Body of Shelton Le Fleur. The Ponchartrain Bridge, the longest bridge in the country, collapses in the first scene of Brown's first book, Decorations in a Ruined Cemetery.
   "Don't you just love these long, rainy afternoons in New Orleans when an hour isn't an hour – but a little piece of eternity dropped into your hands – and who knows what to do with it?" – A Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams

    Shirley Ann Grau, who has lived in and around New Orleans most of her life, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1965 (at 35 years old – making her the youngest woman to win the prize) for her novel The Keepers of the House.

   Sheila Bosworth, author of Almost Innocent and Slow Poison, was born in New Orleans. Walker Percy called Almost Innocent "a lovely achievement, a superior one."

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