Mary Lou Widmer

Celebrate 300 years of New Orleans history! Originally written by Joan B. Garvey and Mary Lou Widmer, this book is widely regarded as the definitive text for tourists, locals, teachers, and students. Complete with a new forward by Barbara Robichaux, a professional French Quarter tour guide, this concise history directs the reader through the diverse traditions and cultures of New Orleans. The updates in this tricentennial edition celebrate the 300-year history of New Orleans, with chapters including details of the city's founding, changing European rule, slavery, and much more. With lists of notable figures and events, this reference volume is a must for historians, tour guides, and lovers of the Big Easy.

In sultry, tempestuous New Orleans of the 1840s, the frontier port was bustling, the theater was all the rage, and a system called placage ruled the lives of beautiful young Quadroons. These lovely girls were the daughters of wealthy white Creoles and their mulatto mistresses, trained all their lives to be placees, mistresses of white Creole gentlemen. In return for their favors, the placees were each given a house on Rampart Street, furnishings, and a life of luxury. Forced into this decadent but respected system, Mariette Delon, a beautiful Quadroon with skin like a magnolia petal, rebels against it, wishing only to pursue a career in the theater and lead a moral life. Against her will, she attends the Quadroon Ball, where such alliances are arranged and contracts signed. Here she meets handsome young Philippe Grillet, a wealthy aristocrat who tells her she should not be a placee but the wife of a Creole, reinforcing her innermost desires. But her father has his own plans for her, and it is up to Philippe to save her, first by accepting a life-threatening challenge, and finally by pursuing her across the continent to claim her for his own.Only then is he rewarded with a gift more precious than gold. Mary Lou Widmer is an author, former teacher, and historian. She has been published twelve times in both the fiction and non-fiction fields. Among her novels are Night Jasmine and Lace Curtain. http://SBPRA.com/MaryLouWidmer

Margaret Haughery gave everything she ever had to the orphans and the poor. Despite being unable either to read or write, she possessed an incredible business acumen, which allowed her to donate-including what she bequeathed in her will-more than $500,000 throughout her life.