Guidebooks to Sin: The Blue Books of Storyville, New Orleans
Between 1897 and 1917, a legal red-light district thrived at the edge of the French Quarter, helping establish the notorious reputation that adheres to New Orleans today. Though many scholars have written about Storyville, no thorough contemporary study of the blue books-directories of the neighborhood’s prostitutes, featuring advertisements for liquor, brothels, and venereal disease cures-has been available until now.
Pamela D. Arceneaux’s examination of these rare guides invites readers into a version of Storyville created by its own entrepreneurs. A foreword by the historian Emily Epstein Landau places the blue books in the context of their time, concurrent with the rise of American consumer culture and modern advertising.
Illustrated with hundreds of facsimile pages from the blue books in the Historic New Orleans Collection’s holdings, Guidebooks to Sin illuminates the intersection of race, commerce, and sex in this essential chapter of New Orleans history.
Details
- By Pamela D. Arceneaux with a foreword by Emily Epstein Landau
- Published 2017 by HNOC
- Hardcover, 9"×12"
- 160 pages; 320 color images
- ISBN: 978-0-917860-73-7
—Gary Krist, author of Empire of Sin
“A classy, smart look at Storyville.”
—Christine Wiltz, author of The Last Madam
“Anyone who wants to take a very close and careful look at these sources, for pleasure or for analytical purposes, should use this book as their guide. The provenance chapter, tracing how those publications were collected and then transferred over time between discerning collectors interested in rare books and, only later, the history of New Orleans, is an interesting tale in and of itself.”
—Alecia P. Long, author of The Great Southern Babylon
About the Authors
Emily Epstein Landau received her PhD in American history from Yale University. She is the author of Spectacular Wickedness: Sex, Race, and Memory in Storyville, New Orleans (Louisiana State University Press, 2013). She teaches history at St. Albans School in Washington, DC, where she lives with her husband and two daughters.
Guidebooks to Sin: The Blue Books of Storyville, New Orleans
Between 1897 and 1917, a legal red-light district thrived at the edge of the French Quarter, helping establish the notorious reputation that adheres to New Orleans today. Though many scholars have written about Storyville, no thorough contemporary study of the blue books-directories of the neighborhood’s prostitutes, featuring advertisements for liquor, brothels, and venereal disease cures-has been available until now.
Pamela D. Arceneaux’s examination of these rare guides invites readers into a version of Storyville created by its own entrepreneurs. A foreword by the historian Emily Epstein Landau places the blue books in the context of their time, concurrent with the rise of American consumer culture and modern advertising.
Illustrated with hundreds of facsimile pages from the blue books in the Historic New Orleans Collection’s holdings, Guidebooks to Sin illuminates the intersection of race, commerce, and sex in this essential chapter of New Orleans history.
Details
- By Pamela D. Arceneaux with a foreword by Emily Epstein Landau
- Published 2017 by HNOC
- Hardcover, 9"×12"
- 160 pages; 320 color images
- ISBN: 978-0-917860-73-7
—Gary Krist, author of Empire of Sin
“A classy, smart look at Storyville.”
—Christine Wiltz, author of The Last Madam
“Anyone who wants to take a very close and careful look at these sources, for pleasure or for analytical purposes, should use this book as their guide. The provenance chapter, tracing how those publications were collected and then transferred over time between discerning collectors interested in rare books and, only later, the history of New Orleans, is an interesting tale in and of itself.”
—Alecia P. Long, author of The Great Southern Babylon
About the Authors
Emily Epstein Landau received her PhD in American history from Yale University. She is the author of Spectacular Wickedness: Sex, Race, and Memory in Storyville, New Orleans (Louisiana State University Press, 2013). She teaches history at St. Albans School in Washington, DC, where she lives with her husband and two daughters.