BBC History Magazine: New Orleans in 1858

My travel guide to New Orleans in 1858 is out today in this month's BBC History Magazine (June 2011). This was a fun piece to write, not least because it threw up some interesting research questions. Much of the material I had to hand because of Southern Queen, but it also caused me to have to think about some peculiar specifics.

Apocalypse on the Mississippi!

Having not long completed a book chapter on the significance of the Mississippi River for new religious movements in America in the years before the Civil War, I got a profound shock of recognition when I read this ABC report about Harold Camping’s predictions of the forthcoming apocalypse. One of the signs that the end is nigh?

The Mississippi River: Recent flooding has prompted some speculation that pervasive crop destruction is sure to follow, resulting in the widespread famine that's scheduled to help usher in the Apocalypse.

In their own way, these kind of pronouncements fit into a significant American tradition. There is a long history of prophesying Armageddon, particularly along or in relation to the Mississippi. Indeed, the current interest in the possibility of imminent rapture is as nothing compared to events in the nineteenth century, as the example of William Miller attests.

Kindle Editions

The release of Southern Queen might be just around the corner, but Kindle editions of my other two books have just been added on Amazon. Click on the covers above to buy or for a free preview. And stay tuned for more updates soon.

Review: Gateway: The Magazine of the Missouri History Museum

River of Dreams was reviewed in issue 28 of Gateway, the magazine of the Missouri History Museum. David Lobbig writes:

"Thomas Ruys Smith vividly connects his readers to an important time in the explosive peopling of our nation [...] which taken together is like the relearning of a favourite story or song long forgotten [...] What we know in more modern terms as our "strong, brown god" has a rich, important history and myth hardly known. It is a river flowing with archetypes. Perhaps it is not possible for us to see the river with the same eyes as those who once strove against its strength and unpredictability to be sustained by its life. But those people saw their dreams reflected in the Mississippi, and this accounting gives a proper perspective so that readers today, sitting on its banks, may see themselves more clearly."

Review: Journal of Illinois History

Blacklegs, Card Sharps and Confidence Men has been reviewed in the Journal of Illinois History. Greg Hall writes:

“To bring to life the cultural world of the Mississippi River Valley of the nineteenth century is no easy task […] Thomas Ruys Smith does this with a compilation of stories that focus on specific elements of that cultural world that in some ways are quite alien to our own. Yet the legacy of the period can still resonate within our historical memory […] Therefore it is a significant contribution to our understanding of American cultural history that Smith provides here, because before the cowboy and the gunslinger, there was the riverboat gambler.”

You can read the whole review here.

Guest Post: Mardi Gras in 1873

Waiting for the parade in 1873 - Edward King's The Great South

To commemorate Mardi Gras 2011, I've contributed a guest post to Rob Vellela's American Literary Blog about the implications, literary and otherwise, of Mardi Gras in 1873. You can read it here.

Southern Queen: More Advance Praise

I'm very pleased to say that Southern Queen has garnered some more advance praise, this time from Thomas C. Buchanan, author of the essential Black Life on the Mississippi: Slaves, Free Blacks, and the Western Steamboat World:

"Thomas Ruys Smith puts his readers in the minds of the many travellers who visited the city, allowing us to understand the creation of the myth of New Orleans as well as its physical reality. He deftly mixes engaging storytelling and thoughtful historical analysis on every page. The book is a major contribution to the history of the Queen City."

Southern Queen: More Advance Praise

The City of New Orleans, Currier & Ives, 1885

Huge thanks to Anthony Stanonis, author of the wonderful Creating the Big Easy: New Orleans and the Emergence of Modern Tourism, 1918-1945, for the following commentary on Southern Queen: New Orleans in the Nineteenth Century:

It's easy to get lost in New Orleans. Even a native, such as myself, can become confused not only by the condition and direction of the streets but also by their names – names that recall the diverse cultures that have made the Southern Queen so unique among American cities. A walk or drive or streetcar ride quickly becomes a trek through history.

Review: Year's Work in English

River of Dreams got a nod in Year's Work in English Studies 89 (2010):

"In recent years, Twain's travel writing has received renewed attention in scholarship. Especially strong examples of this trend are Thomas Ruys Smith's River of Dreams: Imagining the Mississippi Before Mark Twain..." 

Southern Queen: Advance Praise

Above, the first draft of the jacket for my new book, Southern Queen: New Orleans in the Nineteenth Century (click for bigger). Below, some advance praise from J. Mark Souther, author of the excellent New Orleans on Parade: Tourism and the Transformation of the Crescent City (Louisiana State University Press, 2006):

"Richly appointed with voices of the city's denizens and of those who visited, Southern Queen reveals the myriad ways that the nineteenth century shaped the New Orleans we know today. In this highly readable book, Smith offers a welcome synthesis of the scholarship on this important epoch in the history of the Crescent City."

Southern Queen in the Continuum Catalogue

Southern Queen: New Orleans in the Nineteenth Century is featured in a variety of Continuum catalogues this season (here), but this spread from the US Trade and Academic Highlights Catalogue (pdf here) is the most fulsome (click for bigger):

River of Dreams: 75 Great Literature Books Published by LSU Press

As part of their 75th anniversary celebrations, Louisiana State University Press has put together a series of lists highlighting "75 great LSU Press titles in various subjects." I'm very proud to say that River of Dreams was selected as one of their 75 great literature books.

Coming Soon: Southern Queen

Above, a first glimpse of the cover of my new book, Southern Queen: New Orleans in the Nineteenth Century, to be published Summer 2011 by Continuum. Here's the blurb:

In the nineteenth century, there were few cities in the world more remarkable than New Orleans. Cosmopolitan, alluring, dangerous – a profound mélange of Old World sensibilities and New World possibilities – it was a place unlike anywhere else in America. Southern Queen: New Orleans in the Nineteenth Century examines the city’s rise and fall in this crucible period, charting its transformation from a small colonial backwater on the banks of the Mississippi, through the apex of its power and influence in the antebellum years, to the years of poverty and hardship that followed the Civil War. It is a story characterised by the city’s reputation for decadence, exoticism and illicit pleasures – the glittering carnival mask that the Big Easy still presents to the world. But it is also a story punctuated by a host of disasters that provide stark counterpoints to the glamour of Mardi Gras. Throughout the nineteenth century, the city that care was supposed to forget was visited by wars, epidemics, riots, and – from slavery to Reconstruction and beyond – continual and violent racial tension. Yet through it all, the Southern Queen developed a profound romantic appeal that proved irresistible to an astonishing cast of visitors - travelers, writers, artists and musicians of every kind. It was, in short, an extraordinary time in the history of an extraordinary place. This is the untold story of the life and times of nineteenth century New Orleans, and it is an account that illuminates our understanding not just of the past, but of the present and future of one of America’s most iconic places.

I'll update with a firm release date when it's available. In the meantime, more information is available on the Continuum website, and you can preorder from Amazon here (or here, if you're in the UK).

Review: Louisiana History

River of Dreams: Imagining the Mississippi Before Mark Twain has been reviewed by Daniel Claro in Louisiana History (50:2, Spring 2009). He writes, "this book succeeds in depicting the wonderfully rich literary context that inspired and informed Twain's career."

For a sneak preview of what I'm currently working on, click here.

BBC Radio Scotland: The Book Café - Audio

My conversation with BBC Radio Scotland's Book Café is now up on the iPlayer. Thanks to all involved. Alternatively, you can access the audio of my segment here.

BBC Radio Scotland: The Book Café

This Monday (July 19th) I'll be appearing on BBC Radio Scotland's Book Café to talk about Mark Twain, his legacy, and the forthcoming publication of his autobiography. It starts at 1.15. You can listen live here, and I'll throw up an iPlayer link after the broadcast. More information available here:

And as the hundred year ban on publishing Mark Twain's memoirs ends, John Freeman, Editor of Granta Magazine, and Twain expert Dr. Tom Smith will be joining Clare to explain the ban and discuss the legacy of the writer hailed by William Faulkner as 'the father of American literature'.

Review: Journal of Southern History

River of Dreams: Imagining the Mississippi Before Mark Twain has been reviewed by James E. Seelye in the Journal of Southern History (May 2010). He writes:

"River of Dreams: Imagining the Mississippi before Mark Twain by Thomas Ruys Smith is an engaging guide to changing conceptions of the Mississippi River during the antebellum period. Smith's accessible and well-written narrative catalogs the variety of views and commentary about the "American Nile" from a range of individuals, including writers, foreign visitors, and U.S. presidents. One of the work's biggest strengths is the wide spectrum of views that Smith examines [...] Smith uses an impressive array of primary sources by those with firsthand knowledge of or associations with the Mississippi River [...] Cultural historians will find the book to be a solid portrait of antebellum life along the Mississippi River; those interested in historical memory will find the study especially useful."

Review: Journal of the Early Republic

River of Dreams: Imagining the Mississippi Before Mark Twain has been reviewed in the Journal of the Early Republic. Ann Ostendorf writes:

"Thomas Ruys Smith examines the meaning of the river in the antebellum American imagination. Using literary analysis, Smith unpacks the multitude of written and visual representations of the river as it flowed through American culture and consciousness [...] Smith shows how Twain's postbellum fascination with the literary Mississippi emerged out of decades of prior cultural appropriations [...] Smith's extensive uses of primary-source quotations are often delightfully expressive of contemporary worldviews [...] Ultimately, this work is a creative expression of the nineteenth-century American mind and culture through the ways people of that era viewed this iconic natural resource."

British Association for American Studies Conference, April 8-11 2010

I'm organizing the international British Association for American Studies Conference 2010, running April 8-11 at the University of East Anglia in the UK. The final programme can be found here, and you can keep up to date with conference news on the School of American Studies blog, Containing Multitudes. Looking forward to meeting everyone!

Advance Praise for Blacklegs, Card Sharps and Confidence Men

Advance praise for Blacklegs, Card Sharps and Confidence Men: Nineteenth-Century Mississippi River Gambling Stories, published May 2010 by Louisiana State University Press:

“Blacklegs, Card Sharps, and Confidence Men is the most significant collection of riverlore published in decades. Thomas Ruys Smith’s wide-ranging anthology includes selections from high and low culture, demonstrating the evolution of gambling from a widely feared part of the early river trade to a romanticized American cultural icon. This collection is essential to understanding the history of gambling in America and solidifies Smith’s reputation as the leading cultural historian of American river life.”

—Thomas C. Buchanan, author of Black Life on the Mississippi: Slaves, Free Blacks, and the Western Steamboat World

“The Mississippi riverboat gambler ranks alongside the mountain man, frontier scout, patriot militiaman, borderlands outlaw, and cowboy as an archetypal American folk hero. Yet the scholarly literature of the riverboat gambler is sparse compared to that of his folkloric colleagues. Thomas Ruys Smith helps to correct this slight in Blacklegs, Card Sharps, and Confidence Men. Smith has gathered together a splendid collection of both literary and historical writings (and combinations thereof) that tell the exciting story of this nineteenth-century icon. Scholars and laymen alike will enjoy sitting back and reading these engaging tales.”

—Michael Allen, author of Rodeo Cowboys In The North American Imagination

Available now from Amazon.