New Orleans Noir- The Classics edited by Julie Smith

New Orleans’ tremendous literary tradition shines bright in this outstanding collection of stories from some of the best writers in American history. Julie Smith has masterfully curated this volume with stories published as early as 1843 and as recently as 2012.

Classic reprints from: James Lee Burke, Armand Lanusse, Grace King, Kate Chopin, O. Henry, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams, Shirley Ann Grau, John William Corrington, Tom Dent, Ellen Gilchrist, Valerie Martin, O’Neil De Noux, John Biguenet, Poppy Z. Brite, Nevada Barr, Ace Atkins, and Maurice Carlos Ruffin.

From the introduction by Julie Smith:

“A glittering constellation of writers have passed through New Orleans–including Mark Twain, Sherwood Anderson, O. Henry, even Walt Whitman, to name some of the not-so-usual suspects. Then there are the ones whose sojourns here are better known, the ones on whom we pride ourselves: Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Ellen Gilchrist, James Lee Burke.

It was an anthologer’s feast–just about everybody who came to New Orleans wrote about it. But there were surprises…

If you’re from New Orleans, the neighborhood theme resonates like Tibetan temple bells. And yet, surely every city has similar ‘hoods, similar behavior patterns, similar travails–and has had them forever. ‘Indeed,’ wrote Voltaire, ‘history is nothing more than a tableau of crimes and misfortunes.'”