The Earl of Louisiana

by A.J. Liebling

Book Overview

In the summer of 1959, A. J. Liebling, veteran writer for the New Yorker, came to Louisiana to cover a series of bizarre events that began with Governor Earl K. Long's commitment to a mental institution. Captivated by his subject, Liebling remained to write the fascinating yet tragic story of Uncle Earl's final year in politics. First published in 1961, The Earl of Louisiana recreates a stormy era in Louisiana politics and captures...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0807133434
• ISBN13: 9780807133439
• Release Date: February 2008
• Publisher: LSU Press
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 6.0" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

Oil's Well...

A.J. Liebling is a National Treasure. In reading his musings on boxing, he turns phrases and employs language that makes perusing the fight game fascinating even though the principals have not laced up gloves in over sixty years, and many of the fighters have been banished to anonymity. In this book, Liebling turns his considerable talent to Earl Long, the brother of Huey "Kingfish" Long, and the long-ago Governor of Louisina. The author makes the contention that Long was even more fearless than his assassinated brother, and blazed a trail to liberalism in a Southern State using his brilliant street smarts, and eccentric personality. Liebling illustrates one such story of Long's compassion brilliantly, in sifting through 1960's politics to bring it. The story involves a group of "negro" leaders visiting him to complain that the local hospital had not hired enough "colored" nurses. Long, who was not a segregationist (they abounded in the late 1950's in the south) told the leaders that he would get more nurses hired, but they would not like how he did it. Long went to the hospital and visited a room with two "colored" patients. When a white nurse walked in to check their vitals, Long began screaming that it was an abomination to have white people drawing blood from "niggers", and this would surely lead to miscegenation, and was an effrontery to God's plan. Within months, there was a nursing corps that was almost half black. Long cared about all his constituents, and was cagey enough to know how to play the politics of the era. Liebling makes Long a larger than life figure, and in his prose, also delivers a look at the South in a time capsule. Reading Liebling is best done in a reclining chair under a hot sun at an empty pool. If one can simply concentrate on the images and phrases Liebling offers, with little else to contemplate, reading about whatever subject this gifted writer chronicles can be a transforming experience.

Great Louisiana history!

As a life long resident of Louisiana and student of history,I can say this is one of the finest (and funniest!) books written about any of our politicians-So much has been written about the Long family, especially Uncle Earl, but Mr. Liebling really "gets" it-He captured the weird, wacky flavor of our #1 spectator sport, politics-Although this book was written over 50 years ago, so much remains the same-And that's not always a bad thing! Read ANY book A.J.Liebling wrote-He was a treasure!

The Master

A. J. Liebling is one of my favorite authors; I first encountered his writing in his classic "low life" portrait, "The Telephone Booth Indian," and followed up with "The Sweet Science" (boxing), "Chicago: The Second City," and excerpts from his pieces on Paris' gourmet delights and the non-society horse racing crowd. Liebling specializes in the foibles and small triumphs of those on the fringes, regular working class men and women (mostly men), and even the lumpen-proletariot (somewhere lower than the worker). He does it with an engaging mix of reportorial detail and bemused, ironic observation. However, Liebling's not entirely dispassionate or cloaked behind his dazzling narrative ability. He has opinons and uses his words with precision and potency. Given these talents and interests, the flamboyant, controversial Earl Long is a natural subject for Liebling. As a Northerner, Liebling tries to retain a certain acceptance, or at least empathy, towards the backroom deals, prejudices, personal attacks, and dishonesty in local politics. However, his overall tone is a grudging respect for Earl Long, even though his tactics and personality can be off=putting. Earl Long's melodramatics, his machinations and those of his opponents, are humorous and gut-level real, but at the same time we recognize the demagogery, and his divide and conquer fear-mongering and double-talk. He's clearly a master of being all things to most of the people, playing, for example, blacks against white and vice versa. At the conclusion, Liebling comes away with sympathy for Earl Long, trying to look at the results rather than his rhetoric. All of this sounds rather heady, but that's probably just a result of Liebling's thought-provoking presentation. The book reads easily, is enlightening as well as entertaining, and captures an immensely interesting place and time in politics and society. At times, Liebling's metaphors (Louisiana is the Levantine of American culture) seemed (to me, anyway) labored and a bit obscure, and sometimes his writing lacked his usual pith and punch. Still, Liebling is one of the great 2-initialed masters of 20th century literature, along with S. J. Perelman, H. L. Mencken, and P. G. Wodehouse. Although 'Telephone Booth Indian' remains my favorite Liebling book, those with a political bent and who enjoy cultural clashes (the veteran urbanite Liebling's encouter with Louisiana has the anachronistic flavor of "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court") will enjoy this perceptive, humorous, and sometimes bittersweet story of Long and the political arena.

Political Tragi-Comedy in the Gret Stet of Loo-siana

I came across this old volume while cleaning out a crowded book shelf yesterday. Intrigued by the first line ("Southern political personalities, like sweet corn, travel badly."), I ambled on ahead for a few pages - and couldn't stop reading until the very last line on the last page ("As I send this manuscript to the publisher, the grass-eaters and the nuts have taken over the streets of New Orleans.") In between first and last lines are some of the most colorful, cold-blooded, hot-tempered, loud-mouthed Southern politicians you'd ever want to meet - described first-hand in 1959 by one of the wryest, dryest, most sardonic Yankee writers you'd ever want to read.On the cover is a picture of Earl Long - governor of Louisiana in the 'fifties and brother of the legendary Huey ("Share the Wealth") Long who was assassinated at the State Capitol during the 1930s. Earl started out underrated ("wouldn't make a patch on Huey's pants") but grew in political power to the enrichment of his cronies - and ironically, to the benefit of the state's colored people. Earl Long - as governor - was able to hold off the most vicious attacks on African-Americans in Louisiana - which for a time was less oppressive than sister strongholds of racism like Mississippi. On the back of my book - in shirt sleeves with a glass in hand - is a black-and-white photo of the chubby, bald A. J. Liebling who started covering the 1959 campaign just after the ranting Gov. Long was steered off the floor of the state legislature and physically forced into a car and driven to a Texas insane asylum, where he was signed in as mentally unsound by his own wife, Blanche. That event drew Liebling's attention - and inspired this wild, true tale of political double-dealing, deal-making, and cynical race-baiting. Liebling came to Louisiana curious about Earl Long - and left a grudging admirer of a man who could attack the rich while thinning out their wallets, condemn black people while giving them more state jobs, and rave like a lunatic while practicing shrewd, realistic political artistry. The raw jokes, the Southern speech-patterns, the rural metaphors, the genuine ignorance and the feined ignorance, the rich cuisine, the heat - ever the blanketing heat - are captured quickly and perfectly. This book is for you if you like politics, H. L. Mencken, brilliant stump oratory, or American history. Obviously, I enjoyed it as much as - well, to steal a phrase from Uncle Earl - as much as a hog loves slop.

can I give it 7 stars?

A.J. Liebling has insights into politics like very few other journalists -- and all of his keen observations are on parade in this landmark book. "The Earl of Louisiana," which was originally written as a series of dispatches for The New Yorker, is, first and foremost, a rollicking story. In addition to Governor Earl K. Long, Liebling paints wonderfully colorful portraits of a number of Louisiana's political denizens, including New Orleans Mayor Maurice Delessups, singing cowboy candidate Jimmie Davis and white supremacist scoundrel Willie Rainach. Liebling wades through the bizarre political culture of Louisiana, setting his penetrating eye on all manner of rallies, dinners and barroom jaunts where politics are discussed and dissected. Particularly entertaining is Liebling's voyage into the domain of the Old Regulars, a stalwart race-fixing organization, based in New Orleans. Over the course of his long career, Liebling produced some utterly remarkable journalism. Indeed, his writings on horse-race fixer Col. John R. Stingo in "The Honest Rainmaker," or French cuisine in "Between Meals," or on the vibrancy of Chicago in "Second City" are all classic works in the field of journalism. "The Earl of Louisiana" is at least the equal of any of those, and in many ways surpasses them.