LOUISIANA FOLKLORE NATURAL DISASTERS
LOUISIANA MEDICAL HISTORY
Second Line Rescue
Out of the Shadow of Leprosy
Improvised Responses to Katrina and Rita
The Carville Letters and Stories of the Landry Family
Edited by Barry Jean Ancelet, Marcia Gaudet, and Carl Lindahl
Claire Manes Foreword by Marcia Gaudet
Contributions from François Ancelet, Josef Brown, Charles A. Darensbourg, Mike Davis, Jocelyn H. Donlon, Jon G. Donlon, Nicole Eugene, Anthony Fontenot, Ernest J. Gaines, Glenda Harris, Sidney Harris, Chantell Jones, Robert LeBlanc, Glen Miguez, Shari L. Smothers, Dave Spizale, Angela Trahan, and Vincent Trotter
Second Line Rescue: Improvised Responses to Katrina and Rita chronicles the brave and creative acts through which Gulf Coast people rescued their neighbors during the chaotic aftermath How beleaguered of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. Ordinary citizens created citizens joined in with whatever resourctheir own salvation es they had. Unlike many of the official responders, vernacular rescuers found when their ways around the paralysis. They were institutions failed able to dispel unfounded fears produced by erroneous or questionable reporting. The essays, personal narratives, media reports, and field studies presented here all have to do with effective and often ingenious answers that emerged from the people themselves. The first part of the collection deals with Gulf Coast rescuers from outside stricken communities: those who, safe in their own homes and neighborhoods, marshaled their resources to help their fellow citizens. The second part features the words of hurricane survivors displaced from New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities to Houston, Texas. In many cases, the “victims” themselves were the first responders, rescuing family, friends, and strangers. All of the stories, whether from the “outside” or “inside” responders, reveal a shared history of close-knit community bonds, survival skills sharpened by hard times, and what went right in the aftermath of Katrina and Rita—in spite of all that went so wrong. Barry Jean Ancelet, Scott, Louisiana, holds the Willis Granger and
Tom Debaillon/BORSF Professorship in Francophone Studies and is a Research Fellow at the Center for Louisiana Studies, University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He is the author of numerous books including Cajun and Creole Music Makers and Cajun Country (University Press of Mississippi). Marcia Gaudet, Duson, Louisiana, is professor emerita in English at University of Louisiana at Lafayette and author of Carville: Remembering Leprosy in America (University Press of Mississippi). Carl Lindahl, Houston, Texas, is a professor of English and folklore at the University of Houston and author of Cajun Mardi Gras Masks and Swapping Stories: Folktales from Louisiana (University Press of Mississippi).
In 1924 when thirty-two-year-old Edmond Landry kissed his family good-bye and left for the leprosarium in Carville, Louisiana, leprosy, now referred to as Hansen’s Disease, stigmatized and disfigured but did not kill. Those with leprosy were incarcerated in the federal hospital and isolated from family and community. Phones were unavailable, transportation was precarious, and fear was rampant. Edmond entered the hospital (as did his four other siblings), but he did not surrender to his fate. He fought with his pen and A first-hand account his limited energy to stay connected to his family and to improve living conditions of the trauma for himself and other patients. and impact on Claire Manes, Edmond’s granddaughter, lived much of her life gripped one family facing by the silence surrounding her grandfaleprosy ther. When his letters were discovered, she became inspired to tell his story through her scholarship and his writing. Out of the Shadow of Leprosy: The Carville Letters and Stories of the Landry Family presents her grandfather’s letters and her own studies of narrative and Carville during much of the twentieth century. The book becomes a testament to Edmond’s determination to maintain autonomy and dignity. Letters and stories of the other four siblings further enhance the picture of life in Carville from 1919 to 1977. Claire Manes, Lafayette, Louisiana, is retired from Remington Col-
lege, where she taught English and speech for fourteen years. Her work has appeared in Louisiana History, Journal of American Folklore, and Louisiana Folklore Miscellany.
MAY, 192 pages (approx.), 6 x 9 inches, 26 b&w photographs, foreword, chronology, bibliography, index Printed casebinding $28.00R 978-1-61703-776-4 Ebook 978-1-61703-777-1 More Louisiana titles on page 32 and http://www.upress.state.ms.us/category/louisiana
JUNE, 288 pages (approx.), 6 x 9 inches, introduction, 40 b&w illustrations, bibliography, index Cloth $35.00R 978-1-61703-796-2 Ebook 978-1-61703-797-9 Order online at www.upress.state.ms.us
University Press of Mississippi
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