Bohemian New Orleans

My name is Jeff Weddle . I teach and write in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. My first book, Bohemian New Orleans: The Story of The Outsider and Loujon Press , will be published by the University Press of Mississippi in summer 2007. If you're interested in little magazines, the Beats, Bukowski, Henry Miller, Kenneth Patchen or the Big Easy, I hope you'll grab a copy. I used to write a lot of poetry and published a fair amount of it in little magazines with names like Chiron Review, PlopPlop, Dog River Review, The Plastic Tower, and Impetus (and a bunch of others). If you remember the little magazine devoted to Bukowski called Sure, the Charles Bukowski Newsletter, I was in every issue except the first one. Probably the only place to find any of my poems any more is in an anthology called Mondo Barbie.
I have been using my blog to post some of my stories and poems. These things have nothing to do with my book, but I thought some people might enjoy reading them.
Bohemian New Orleans: The Story of the Outsider and Loujon Press
In 1960, Jon Edgar and Louise "Gypsy Lou" Webb founded Loujon Press on Royal Street in New Orleans's French Quarter. The small publishing house quickly became a giant. Heralded by the Village Voice and the New York Times as one of the best of its day, the Outsider, the press's literary review, featured, among others, Charles Bukowski, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Robert Creeley, Denise Levertov, and Walter Lowenfels. Loujon published books by Henry Miller and two early poetry collections by Bukowski. Bohemian New Orleans traces the development of this courageous imprint and examines its place within the small press revolution of the 1960s.
Drawing on correspondence from many who were published in the Outsider, back issues of the Outsider, contemporary reviews, promotional materials, and interviews, Jeff Weddle shows how the press's mandarin insistence on production quality and its eclectic editorial taste made its work nonpareil among peers in the underground. Throughout, Bohemian New Orleans reveals the messy, complex, and vagabond spirit of a lost literary age.
What the critics are saying:
"The French Quarter has long been heralded as a Dionysian vortex, a creative way station for artists craving street theater and inebriated fun. Now, for the first time, in Jeff Weddle’s Bohemian New Orleans, we can understand the essential role the Outsider and Loujon Press played in enhancing the Port City’s ethereal mystique. A truly fascinating, well-written, and important book."
--Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History, Tulane University
BOOK UPDATE: 2/05/07: The Library of Congress now has an entry for Bohemain New Orleans in their catalog. Here is the link: Library of Congress entry for Bohemain New Orleans
BOOK UPDATE 1/19/07: The page proofs arrived yesterday. Now I have about two weeks to review them and create an index. Very, very exciting.
BOOK UPDATE 12/14/06: I got word yesterday that the copy edited manuscript has been given to the production staff. This is where things start to get pretty exciting.
My book is available for pre-order from these (and probably other) .. booksellers in the United States and abroad:
Joseph-Beth Booksellers
Blackwell.com
Square Books
Harvard Book Store
twilighteffect.com
The Tattered Cover
Powells.com
Magers and Quinn
amazon.com
amazon.ca
amazon.co.uk
amazon.co.jp
amazon.fr
amazon.de
amazon.at
BooksFree.com
stauffacher.ch
Buy.com
nolanews.info
PriceGrabber.com
Ecampus.com
WalMart.com
PrecoMania.com
Book-25.co.uk
overstock.com
eLounge.com
All Discountbooks.net
Bokfynd.nubol.de
Books a Million
The American Book Center
Seekbooks.com.ua
Angus & Robertson
softforall.com
Geschenkidee.ch
Action Is My Reward
Kinokuniya BookWeb
writer'sbookcase.com.au
Please consider adding me to your friends list or encouraging others to add me. I'm trying to get the word out about my book.
Drop me a line sometime. I love getting to know people.