New Orleans
New Orleans was the largest city in the American South before the Civil War and the mouth of the river that Twain learned to pilot. Kate Chopin's The Awakening takes a woman from a resort on the Gulf back into the city's social world, and the novel's honesty about desire made it notorious in 1899.
The Historic New Orleans Collection holds maps, newspapers, photographs and manuscript material on the city and the Gulf South. Its archives document a place that was Spanish, French and American in quick succession, which is why the city's fiction is so interested in inheritance and legitimacy.
A library to check
- The Historic New Orleans Collection — catalogues and digital collections, open to readers online
Books connected to New Orleans
- The Awakening — Kate Chopin, 1899. The first great American novel about a woman's desire, and still one of the most radical.
- Life on the Mississippi — Mark Twain, 1883. The best book about learning a craft, and the source of Twain's voice.
A note on accuracy
We describe literary connections and public collections, not street addresses, opening hours or ticket prices. Those change and we cannot verify them for every reader. Follow the institution's own site for current visiting information.