City of the Dead: A Journey Through St. Louis Cemetery #1, New Orleans, Louisiana

by Robert Florence and Dashka Slater

Book Overview

The mysteriously enticing above-ground cemeteries of New Orleans present a profound display of mortality. However, these "cities of the dead" also invoke life. What they contain is indeed immortal.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1887366024
• ISBN13: 9781887366021
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: University of Southwestern Louisiana
• Length: 79 Pages
• Weight: 0.42 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.2" x 5.8" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

superb for visiting this cemetery.

This is a short and sweet introduction to St. Louis Cemetery # 1 in New Orleans. Although this is the type of book you can read at home it becomes much more relevent if you take it along with you and read it as you tour this cemetery. Very interesting information. I rated it four stars rather than five because Robert Florence wrote another book called New Orleans Cemeteries. Much of the introduction of this book is almost word for word in the New Orleans Cemeteries. That made it redundant for those of us who have read the larger, more complete book about all the cemeteries in NO. I enjoyed this book. It was filled with a lot of good information. The authors appreciation of cemeteries and their buildings and history shows in this writing. I particularly like that there are stories of some of the people buried in this cemetery. I would have liked to see more of that (Another reason for the four rating.) Overall, I'd buy this book again and take it with me on my tour of this cemetery.

Fascinating history

I recently toured St. Louis Cemetery #1 with Robert Florence as the guide and was very impressed with his knowledge, not only of this graveyard, but of New Orleans in general. I purchased this book the next day at the Garden District Bookstore, famous as Ann Rice's neighborhood bookstore, and read the entire thing on the plane while flying home. The history of the cemetery and how it fits in with the history of New Orleans is just fascinating and written in a manner that makes for pleasant, easy reading.

A good introduction to the stange beauty of the cemetery

As a New Orleans native, I always enjoy playing tourist without having to risk my life to take in some of the wonderful buildings and architecture of my hometown. This simple but entertaining book takes you on a short (and I do mean short) tour of St. Louis Cemetery #1, the city's oldest (and also one of the most dangerous to visit) cemeteries. To outsiders, N.O.'s rows and rows of mausoleum walls is quite impressive. Thanks to New Orleans being seriously below sea level, above-ground burials have been a necessary part of death. This book explains all the mystery and even highlights some famous resting residents of the cemetery, such as Marie Laveau and Homer Plessy (of the famed Plessy v. Ferguson case). The author also reminds us that playing tourist in this cemetery can assure you might not come out of it. On the closing page, the author has reprinted the plaque from the Archidiocese explaining the lack of security in the cemetery and the dangers of touring alone. Group cemetery tours in New Orleans are abundant, so cemetery-sight-seeing alone is never a good idea. The book explains that as people leave N.O. for safer surroundings, they are also leaving the cemetery to fall into disrepair and decay. Many crypts are in terrible condition, some nearly destroyed by vandals and the elements. The book has a very poetic overtone to it, and you can feel the author's interest and intrigue with St. Louis Cemetery #1. I only gave it 4 stars because I believe the book could have been longer without sacrificing the rich tone it has. Excellent book, and the bibliography lists other great titles if you just can't get enough of the strage lure of the New Orleans cemeteries and their haunting architecture.