Long considered the finest collection of Louisiana folktales and customs, this anthology of short stories from Lyle Saxon, Edward Dreyer, and Robert Tallant, chronicles the tales and legends that emerged from the bayou country more than seventy years ago. This anniversary edition contains the complete transcript of the original 1945 printing. On every page are new delights: garlic hangs from the rafters, the Loup Garou holds a convention on Bayou Goula, spiders dwell in haunted houses, and images of St. Rosalia are carried from church to church. All aspects of the bayou state's society are detailed in this wonderful album of Louisiana tradition. Even ghosts haunt the pages including the headless horseman of Natchitoches, and the whimsical apparition who startled citizens of Monroe. Gumbo Ya-Ya is a charming look at the legends and practices of Louisiana. Originally written as part of the WPA's Louisiana Writers' Program, it has endured as a classic of its genre.
Author
Robert Tallant was one of Louisiana’s best-known authors. Born in New Orleans in 1909, he attended the city’s local public schools. Before “drifting” into writing, Tallant worked as an advertising copywriter, a bank teller, and a clerk. It was his friendship with Lyle Saxon that led Tallant to his position as editor on the Louisiana WPA Writers Project during the 1930s and 1940s. In that position, he coauthored Gumbo Ya-Ya: Folk Tales of Louisiana (pb) with Lyle Saxon and Edward Dreyer. By 1948, Tallant’s career had launched, and over the next eleven years, he produced eight novels, six full-length works of nonfiction, and numerous short stories and articles on subjects of local interest. He is also known to have corresponded with, as well as applied to, the Julius Rosenwald Fund for a fellowship in creative writing. During the last years of his life, he was a lecturer in English at Newcomb College as well as a reporter for the New Orleans Item. Robert Tallant died in 1957. http://pelicanpub.com/products.asp?ca...
