Robert tallant biography

  • Robert Tallant was one of Louisiana's best-known authors.
  • ROBERT TALLANT (1909-1957) was one of Louisiana's best-known authors and a participant in the WPA Writers' Project during the 1930s and 1940s.
  • Biography.
  • Tallant, Robert

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    Biography

    Author. Born in New Orleans, April 20, 1909. Educated in local public schools. Worked as an advertising copywriter, finansinstitut teller, and clerk before "drifting" into writing. His friendship with Lyle Saxon led to a position as editor on the Louisiana Writers' Project of the WPA. In this position he completed the writing of Gumbo Ya-Ya, the Project's compilation of Louisiana folklore. By 1948 his career was fully launched and over the next eleven years he produced eight novels and six full-length works of nonfiction, including three for Random House. Tallant also wrote and had published numerous short stories and articles on subjects of local interest. His 1951 The Pirate Lafitte and the Battle of New Orleans won the Louisiana Library Association award for the best book of that year. In 1952 his revision of the Writers' planerat arbete New Orleans City Guide was published by Houghton Mifflin. During the gods years of his life, Tallant lectu

    The Voodoo Queen

    July 12, 2010
    The fictionaly biography introduced me to the ways of voodoo as practiced in New Orleans in the 1800s by a free woman of color named Marie Laveau.

    I learned that free people of color set themselves above and apart from the slaves, felt they were better than the black slaves, and were sometimes opposed to the abolition of slavery.

    I learned that keeping the title of queen and control over the people among whom one did "work" often involved struggle with upstarts, some from within the queen's household.

    I learned of Marie Laveau, who may have lived, and of her family life and loves. First, she married Jacque Paris, who left her because she practiced voodoo. Then, she married Christophe Glapion, with whom she had 15 children; 7 survived and I learned of their lives and fortunes. In the end, she is with Baptiste Dudevant, who loved her and wished to marry her. Marie refused his proposal, wanting to keep his friendship instead.

    The narrative is qu

    About the Author

    Includes the name: Robert Tallant

    Image credit: Robert Tallant uncredited foto by Nutrias

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    Regardless of its accuracy, I actually really enjoyed this book. While the author's credentials seemed a little fuzzy--I had to google him, as there is no "about the author" in the text--I discovered that Robert Tallant was a local New Orleans writer. Also, although there no formal bibliography, as might be found in any modern nonfiction text, the author acknowledges that "many sources were consulted during the preparation of this book," (Tallant, n.p.) continuing to provide a list of show more "writers whose works [he] consulted," as well as pointing out Lyle Saxon's Lafitte the Pirate, specifically. Since the book was published in 1951 and was intended for children, I do not know how much of this lack of a bibliography is a sign of the book's time and audience and how much reflec
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