Literatour: The Big Easy between the covers

NEW ORLEANS - I walked the narrow streets of this city's French Quarter and passed a mixed crew, all framed by the stately black wrought iron that has become the district's trademark.

Window shoppers browsed, and a white-haired group of seniors plodded along behind a tour guide. Parents pushed strollers as a young woman with purple hair, black clothing and too many piercings to count dashed past.

A few people looked as though they didn't have a penny for dinner. Others looked as though they might own the town: if not this town, at least one somewhere.

The enticing aroma of pralines - sugar and butter, vanilla and pecans - wafted through an open door. The sounds of jazz spilled from other doorways, along with the voices and laughter of those inside.

A white-faced mime caught the attention of passers-by, who stared and whispered, raised their cameras but then paused as they eyed the nearby cardboard box top with a scrawl noting "tips."

A bit farther down the street, a muscled young man, dressed like a construction worker, stood motionless as he clutched a short ladder. He, too, had a "tip" box nearby.

It is all part of the fabled city, but none of this was what I had come for. I was searching, in the torrid heat, through block after block of the New Orleans that had inspired such authors as William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, Tennessee Williams and Anne Rice, all of whom lived here.

It was not difficult to find hints of their lives.

Buildings remain in which the writers once worked and slept, where they drank and ate.

Because several times I have visited William Faulkner's home in Oxford, Miss., I wanted especially to find his New Orleans haunts. They lie in Pirate's Alley, in the heart of the French Quarter across from St. Louis Cathedral.

As I approached where Faulkner had lived, I stood outside for a moment. I wanted to absorb the place, to stare at the shuttered attic window, to notice the slate-paved alley and gas lights along it, ferns dangling from wrought-iron balconies.

It has been about 80 years since the young Faulkner lived in the upper room at 624 Pirate's Alley, writing his first novel, Soldiers' Pay. The lower level today is a bookstore, a fascinating collection of floor-to-ceiling, new and out-of-print books in a shop aptly named Faulkner House Books.

Since its renovation by owners Joseph DeSalvo Jr. and Rosemary James, the Faulkner House had been named a national Literary Landmark.

Perhaps to preserve the upper level's sanctity, visitors are not permitted there. I lingered long in the store, with its scuffed and pocked brick floors, trying to imagine Faulkner walking here.

Hotel has a history

Then I headed for his favorite bar, at the Hotel Monteleone, now the setting for the town's annual Words and Music: A Literary Feast in New Orleans. With music and conferences, the event salutes Faulkner's life and work and draws hundreds of participants, including agents, editors, published and aspiring writers.

Faulkner was not the only author who favored the hotel, located at 214 Royal St., in the heart of the French Quarter. The Monteleone has hosted Truman Capote, Richard Ford, Winston Groom and Eudora Welty.

Briefly before Capote's birth, his parents lived in the Monteleone, which is one of three U.S. hotels named a Literary Landmark by the Friends of the Libraries USA and Friends of the New Orleans Public Libraries. (The others are the Plaza and the Algonquin, both in New York City.)

At the Monteleone, a display window in the lobby details the hotel's literary links and displays books by Capote, Welty, Ford, Faulkner, Williams, Rebecca Wells (The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood), and Stephen Ambrose (Band of Brothers).

New Orleans, more than most places, seems a city of paradoxes, filled with the sublime and the alcohol-fueled raucous and reality fusing with myth. I moved on, looking for tangible ties to Mississippi-native Tennessee Williams.

Arriving in New Orleans in the late 1930s, Williams discovered a liberation he often captured in his writings.

Williams had several homes in the French Quarter. The structure at 722 Toulouse St. today is part of the Historic New Orleans Collection; and at 710 Orleans Ave., you can glimpse where Williams wrote Ten Blocks on the Camino Real.

Williams was often spotted at Galatoire's Restaurant, located at 209 Bourbon St., where today's visitors can linger for the atmosphere that may have fueled one man's genius.

While living at 632 St. Peter St., where he rewrote A Streetcar Named Desire, Williams could hear the streetcars, including one named Desire, whizzing down Royal and another labeled Cemeteries running along Canal. He found irony in their diverse destinations.

The streetcar that was named Desire no longer runs, but one named St. Charles continues its journey to the Garden District, which is dotted with homes of the affluent and is the setting for Williams' Suddenly, Last Summer.

Williams is honored annually with a festival here. Slated this year for March 30-April 3, the 19th annual Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival includes a one-act play contest, classes, academic conferences, theater events, a book fair, walking tours and plenty of ways to become immersed in the writer and his writing.

Inspiration everywhere

Williams and Faulkner are the most celebrated writers to have drawn inspiration from the city, from its rowdy nightlife to its intriguing cemeteries to its history. But many authors lived here and featured the city in their works:

n Frances Parkinson Keyes wintered for 25 years at 1113 Chartres St., in the French Quarter, where she wrote Dinner at Antoine's, The Chess Players, Madama Castel's Lodger and Blue Camellia. The raised center-hall house, which is open for tours, was occupied from 1866 to 1868 by former Civil War Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard. Built in 1826, the house, with its twin curved staircases leading to a Tuscan portico, holds Mrs. Keyes' collection of 200-plus antique dolls, 87 teapots, delicate fans and folk costumes.

n A historical marker at the apartment in the Pontalba buildings, 540-B St. Peter St., notes where Sherwood Anderson, author of Winesburg, Ohio, lived with his wife and hosted luminaries, who included Faulkner, Carl Sandburg, Ring Lardner and Edmund Wilson.

n Ties to contemporary novelist Anne Rice can be found several places. The setting of her autobiographical novel, Violin, is at 2524 St. Charles Ave., while 1239 First St. was the setting for The Witching Hour. Formerly an orphanage, the property at 1314 Napoleon Ave. is open for tours of Anne Rice's Doll Museum and the Stan Rice Gallery, where that poet-painter exhibits his work.

n It was at 1820 Milan St., a quiet Uptown street off St. Charles, that Walker Percy began work on The Moviegoer, a novel about a young man from a "good" New Orleans family who has focused on money, sex and movie watching. But during Mardi Gras, he gets the feeling that he needs something more.

Time spent in New Orleans is much like time spent with your love: The more you know him, the more there is to love.

Writer Lynn Grisard Fullman and photographer Milton Fullman live in Birmingham, Ala.; he is president of the Society of American Travel Writers.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: About the Words and Music: A Literary Feast in New Orleans, go to www.wordsandmusic.org call 504 586-1609.

About the Tennessee Williams/New Orleans Literary Festival, go to www.tennesseewilliams.net 504 581-1144.

For more on the city, contact the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention & Visitors Bureau, toll-free 1-800-672-6124; www.neworleanscvb.com Also consult www.neworleansonline.com

[Last modified February 4, 2005, 11:03:08]