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Guidebooks to Sin

April 5, 2017 by Julia Flynn Siler Leave a Comment

At opening night of the 2017 Tennessee Williams Festival in New Orleans, I met a librarian who also happens to be a champion ham kicker.

Pamela D. Arceneaux at the Williams Research Center in New Orleans

She shimmied her way onto the stage of Le Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre in New Orleans in a sparkly black top and full-length skirt. Channeling the spirit of one of her heroes, Mae West, she delivered a lively and ribald talk on a subject that has fascinated her for some 35 years: the “blue books” of Storyville, the red-light district of New Orleans that flourished from 1897-1917. The “blue books” were guidebooks to the prostitutes and brothels in the district

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Filed Under: History, Literary Festivals, Performing, The Writing Life Tagged With: librarians, Libraries, Literary, Literary life, new orleans, red-light districts, storyville, Tennessee Williams /New Orleans Literary Festival

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