New Orleans: Elegance and Decadence

New Orleans: Elegance and Decadence focuses on the interiors, furnishings, art collections, and gardens of a handful of creative people in New Orleans in the 1990s. Dreamers and urban pioneers, they included bohemian artists, artisans, architects, preservationists, activists, antiquarians, restaurateurs, and teachers, all living outside the American mainstream. They tolerated crumbling plaster, exposed lathe, and sagging galleries in exchange for communal festivity and joie de vivre. Photographer Richard Sexton documented how and where they lived; what they hoarded, collected, and worshipped. In this second edition, historian Randolph Delehanty weaves together the history of New Orleans from the fragments he saw in those photographs. The authors explore in words and images how the combination of climate, a strongly European and Catholic culture, African influences, and the revelry of Mardi Gras have created a modern ambience unlike that of any other city in America. Much has changed in New Orleans over the 30 years since this book first appeared, but far more has stayed the same. The book celebrates the joyous spirit of this distinctive culture, an inspiration to everyone who pursues the art of living.