Take a Trip to the Cane River Bohemia Book Launch at Cammie Henry Research Center in Natchitoches

The Cammie Garrett Henry Research Center, NSULA

We drove to Natchitoches Thursday for the first book event for Cane River Bohemia.  I was a nervous wreck and looking back now, I can't fathom why.

The event was held on familiar ground, the Cammie Henry Research Center at Watson Library at Northwestern State University, where I did most of my research.  This is where Cammie Henry's archives are and a great deal of my research consisted of reading her letters, papers, documents, and the correspondence she received from others.

Mary Linn Wernet is the archivist there and she terrified me when I first began this project but soon became a friend and guide.  I could not have written this book without her and that's a fact.  Today, I treasure her friendship and smile every time I think about some of those days pouring over photographs with her and the discussions we had.

With Mary Linn Wernet, archivist, CGHRC

Mary Linn's assistant, Sharon Wolff, prepared a terrific exhibit prior to the book event which will remain on display for several weeks if you want to get over and see it.  It's all about Cammie and her circle of friends, and her children.  You can see photographs and scrapbook pages from Cammie's collection as well as letters between the circle of friends.  There is also a small table with Lyle Saxon's Children of Strangers on display and Caroline Dormon's Wild Flowers of Louisiana, which is very rare and impossible to find now.  It's the first time I've actually seen it and the color plates are absolutely stunning.

Wild Flowers of Louisiana by Caroline Dormon

As time for the event approached, I actually began to calm down.  The books arrived from the bookstore, the caterers arrived and began setting up, and soon the first guests began to arrive.  It meant so much to see some familiar faces and friends who drove over from Shreveport. That helped my nerves immensely.

The fabulous caterers: the cucumber sandwiches were fab!

The next two hours went by in a blur.  Literally everyone was so warm and welcoming.  Everyone was as interested in Cammie as I have been and it was especially gratifying to me to see that this is a book that people have been waiting to read.  Not necessarily MY book, but people have been waiting for a book about Cammie Henry.  Like me, they want to know more.  People got their books signed and then sat down at the tables and had refreshments or visited with friends.

During the evening I was so honored to see the president of the university, Dr. Chris Maggio, come by; he's doing great things at NSULA and is such a friendly and personable man. I really enjoyed visiting with him.

With Dr. Chris Maggio, NSULA President.  (Bill Vance photo used with permission,
Natchitoches Parish Journal).

I was over the moon when J. Michael Kinny came in.  J. Michael had The Book Merchant on Front Street for a very long time and it is still missed.  It was the perfect indie book shop and I have always wanted to open one just like it.  Maybe one day.  J. Michael wrote the blurb for the book and it was just perfect; he captured exactly what I wanted to achieve: "...you'll see Miss Cammie and Lyle Saxon sitting behind the Big House sharing stories and laughter...".  I want my readers to feel like they have experienced Melrose as it was when Cammie had her writers and artists colony there.  When J. Michael came in I bolted around the table to give him a hug. I'm forever grateful to him for not just the blurb but for being who he is and for sharing books with me through his shop.

With J. Michael Kinny, The Book Merchant

One of the highlights of the evening was when the Henry grandchildren came in.  I felt right at home with those ladies and wish I could spend more time with them.  What fun they are!  We laughed and shared stories and I just fell in love with them.  They felt like family.  I could not have been more honored that they came to this event.  I wish I'd taken a picture with them!

Several ladies with the Association for the Preservation of Historic Natchitoches came by and bought books, and had them signed, and that meant so much to me.  Their mission in preserving these historic sites, Melrose and Lemee House, and well as the rich cultural legacy of Natchitoches, is so important.  Having Cammie's story now available now only adds to the rich history at Melrose and hopefully will help support their cause.  I lobbied a little bit for the site manager job at Melrose but I didn't get very far!  ;)

In short, there was never any reason for me to be so nervous; everyone was, as Natchitoches always is, so warm and welcoming.  I was sorry for the night to end.  I was sorry we sold out of books: I wanted everyone to be able to go home with a book, but the bookstore did take orders and promise free shipping as soon as they arrive, so it turned out fine.

After the event, Steve and I headed down to my favorite eatery, Pioneer Pub, for fried alligator bites (and he had eggplant fries).  After dinner we turned north on I-49 and headed home but I felt like a kid at Christmas for the next 24 hours.

I'm looking forward to sharing Cammie's story in the coming months; the next event is the Louisiana Book Festival in Baton Rouge on November 9-10.

As I prepare now to begin another book, I'm not moving too far away from Cammie.  I don't want to go into details on the project yet but I will say that I am collaborating with someone on this one and I could not be more excited about it.  We've been doing some necessary legwork over the past few months and have all the pieces in place now, so I've boxed up my Cammie files, kept out the things I'm going to carry over, I've cleaned off my desk and I'm ready to start writing.

I'm not comfortable with a lot of self serving posts like this but the event was so wonderful and so gratifying that I just had to share it.  I can't thank everyone involved enough for making this happen.

Further Reading:
Cane River Bohemia Book Signing Held at Cammie G. Henry Research Center (Natchitoches Parish Journal, October 19, 2018).

Take a Trip to Visit Louisiana's Unique Preservation Sites

Cammie Henry's scrapbook on Shadows-on-the-Teche

Spring is the most beautiful time of the year in Louisiana. There's no doubt in my mind. The dogwoods and azaleas are beautiful and they are everywhere! Everything is turning green and spring's pastel colors paint our landscape. It's no wonder that we get wanderlust and want to hit the road this time of year. I have a trip to south Louisiana planned in a few weeks and could not be more excited.

In preparation for that trip I went to Natchitoches yesterday to dig into Cammie Henry's archives once again. I have just finished reading Morris Raphael's biography of Weeks Hall, owner of Shadows-on-the-Teche plantation.  

Weeks Hall was a colorful character and reminds me in many ways of Lyle Saxon. The Hall family presence can be dated to the very early 1800s on Bayou Teche with large landholdings and a sugar plantation. The plantation house that remains today was begun in 1831 and completed in 1834 so that makes it contemporary with Melrose Plantation in Natchitoches which was completed in 1833.

As I researched my book, Cane River Bohemia: Cammie Henry and her Circle at Melrose Plantation, it was impossible not to fall under the spell of Lyle Saxon as well as Cammie Henry because they were both such vivid people who loved life and lived every moment of their lives. 

 Weeks Hall also falls into this category.  

While both Weeks and Lyle would probably have lived longer if they had taken better care of themselves, they were both a product of their time and they both lived the way they wanted to.  They had a lot of fun, entertained a lot of people, and both made their own unique preservation contribution to Louisiana.  So did Cammie Henry, and let's not overlook Cammie's best friend, Caroline Dormon and her preservation of the Kistachie forest as well as her home, Briarwood..

That all of these people should come together is fascinating to me when I think about the conversations and gatherings they had.  

Weeks Hall is a paradox to me in that he restored this beautiful plantation home and the gardens in New Iberia which naturally attracted tourists and the general public who wanted to see it.  But Weeks also valued his privacy and was a huge practical joker.  Morris Raphael writes that Weeks often walked the gardens in his underwear much to the shock of tourists who happened to be availing themselves of his gardens.  Sometimes people would simply wander into his house, uninvited.

In one one of the letters from Weeks to Cammie Henry dated July 1932 that I read yesterday, he describes encounters with uninvited guests:

I have been locking my gates night and day.  It is now 8:45 p.m. and someone just telephoned.  I answered myself and said I was out.  We have been finding people in the house even. Monday I locked a crowd of fifteen in and made them jump the fence!
...

Weeks Hall letter to Cammie Henry, 1932

Why is it, dear Aunt Cammie, that people pressure on country people, as you well know, in ways that they would not dare in the cities. Two months ago I had my house and gates locked. I was upstairs and sent the boy to the yard for the dog. A man that I know fairly well had jumped the fence and caught the boy coming in the back door. He made him open the gate, brought in eight people, a suitcase of liquors, and had party in my kitchen for two hours. I had hidden in the garret. When they left I asked the boy to bring up my lunch. They had eaten not only all of that but a ham that I cooked especially and promised to my cousins next door.

Can you imagine?!

Weeks Hall and Lyle Saxon were lifelong friends and both were charming hosts when they wanted to be, apparently, as was Cammie Henry, and all had a sense of responsibility in preservation.

Cammie's efforts in preserving and restoring not only Melrose plantation but the cabins and buildings that she brought there as well as her patronage of artists and writers of the time is invaluable.  Lyle Saxon preserved Louisiana lore and history through his writings for the newspaper as well as through his books, and Weeks Hall, of course, preserved and restored The Shadows.

I'm grateful for all three of these people not only for their preservation of my home state but also for their forward thinking and the records they left behind. They provide an invaluable look at their age and allow us to look into their lives.

If wanderlust strikes you this spring and summer, put both Melrose Plantation and The Shadows on your destination list.  Louisiana is a beautiful place: get out and explore!

Lyle Saxon, Weeks Hall, and Shadows on the Teche

Shadows on the Teche, 1938

Fantastic news!  The good people at the Books Along the Teche Literary Festival have offered me a media pass to cover the festival this year and I could not be more excited!

The festival will be April 6 - 8 in New Iberia's historic district but their website promises events all throughout the parish. Their agenda is jam-packed with events I don't want to miss and one of the highlights for me will be the opening reception:  a Cajun Cochon de Lait (pig roast) with music by the Bunk Johnson Brazz Band, hors d’oeuvres and adult beverages at Shadows-on-the-Teche, a National Trust for Historic Preservation site.

Shadows-on-the-Teche was the home of the Weeks family and was built in 1831 and completed 1834 for David Weeks and his wife, Mary Clara Conrad Weeks.  According to Richard Lewis, curator of visual arts at the Louisiana State Museum in New Orleans, the land was granted to Weeks's father, William,  in 1792 through a Spanish land grant.  William continued to purchase property throughout the area and eventually accumulated over 2,000 acres.

David Weeks and his father grew some cotton but focused primarily on sugar cane in the early 1820s. William retained carpenter James Bedell and mason Jeremiah Clark to build the Shadows but he died before the house was completed. When his widow remarried, she kept her property separate from that of her second husband. When she died the plantation passed to her son, William F. Weeks who died in 1895; then it passed to his daughters, one of whom was Lily Weeks Hall.  She died in 1918 and her son, William Weeks Hall returned to the plantation from Paris.  He acquired all family shares and at the age of 25 became the sole owner of the plantation.

Weeks Hall spent the rest of his life restoring the plantation to its original grandeur.  He used family papers and a complete set of construction records to achieve this, according to Richard Lewis in his book, Robert W. Tebbs: Photographer to Architects.  Architects Richard Koch (1889-1971) and Charles R. Armstrong (d. 1947) were retained to restore the home "to its 1830s appearance."  When Weeks Hall died in 1959 he bequeathed the home to the National Trust for Historic Preservation.  Koch and Samuel Wilson, Jr. did restoration work for the National Trust in 1961 and since then the gardens have also been restored.

Like Cammie Henry, Weeks Hall spent his life preserving and restoring a plantation home and buffering it against the encroaching modernism that he saw around him.  Both Cammie and Weeks Hall used their plantation homes to paint a picture of the past in which they both lived, while also keeping one foot in the present.  Complicit in this for both of them was their common friend, writer Lyle Saxon.

Lyle Saxon and Weeks Hall, a fine artist and painter, were lifelong friends and when Lyle Saxon had an appendectomy that turned out to be much more complicated than initially believed, Weeks Hall stepped up as a blood donor for Lyle.  Chance Harvey, in her biography of Saxon, says that after this they referred to each other as "cousins."  Lyle even joked, "If you think this is going to make me paint any better, you're crazy."

In The Friends of Joe Gilmore, Saxon devotes an entire chapter to Weeks Hall and chronicles a literal "moonlight and magnolias" visit to the plantation with his servant, Joe Gilmore:

"And so we sat there on the broad gallery sipping [mint]juleps while Joe and Mose brought in the bags...After dinner we strolled out to the summer house overlooking the bayou and some of Weeks' friends came to call.  The moon was nearly full and the bayou was filled with shining ripples.  Great trees arched over our heads where we sat in the shadow."

Lyle's friend and illustrator Edward Suydam was also present that night and Lyle calls the evening "nearly perfect" as ladies in white linen dresses and men in summer suits drifted across the lawn while servants mingled among them balancing trays of drinks.

I'm fully expecting to "see" Lyle Saxon and Weeks Hall when I visit The Shadows in April!

There is so much history and so many truly cool things to see in New Iberia and the surrounding area that I'm certain one weekend will in no way be enough.  Now that the book is finished I plan to make several trips south to more fully explore the stomping grounds of Lyle Saxon and Cammie Henry.

Cammie was born in Assumption parish (she sometimes says that she was born in Ascension parish) and taught school in Donaldsonville after her graduation from the Normal School in Natchitoches.  There are plenty of places around that area to explore as well.  Another trip!

Once again, The Books Along the Teche Literary Festival will be April 6-8; get your tickets here and make plans to go!


For Further Reading:
Robert W. Tebbs: Photographer to Architects (LSU Press, 2011)
Shadows on the Teche Plantation (Karen Kingsley, Knowla)
The Shadows on the Teche: History 
Lyle Saxon and the WPA Guide to New Orleans (Lawrence N. Powell, 2009)




If you like this post, please share it!  If you love this post, hit the tip jar in the right sidebar!

Books Along the Teche is the Perfect Weekend Festival

Shadows on the Teche

Books and literary festivals are right up my alley: I love them!  I love book bazaars, book festivals, book fairs, the whole thing.  And it's a good thing I do since I have a side hustle as a writer.

So, when I came across this announcement about the Books Along the Teche Literary Festival in April, well, my heart skipped.  How perfect is this event?!  It will be in New Iberia in the spring and it doesn't get any better than that, except wait!  It does!  The festival is named for local son James Lee Burke.  I've been a fan of his Dave Robicheaux character for years.  In fact, that's one of the things that drew me to Michael Henry's books; his Willie Mitchell character reminded me a lot of Dave Robicheaux.

Nearly every event at Books Along the Teche looks enticing.  On Friday, April 6, the festival starts at 9 a.m. with a food tasting and everyone knows Louisiana food is fantastic.  In the afternoon there is lunch and then a tour of Iberia parish featuring Dave Robicheaux's "haunts and jaunts."

Louisiana author Ernest Gaines will be the featured guest this year and on Saturday afternoon he will lead a reading and then host a question and answer session.  Gaines is the author of A Lesson Before Dying and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, among many other works.  The film adaptation of Miss Jane Pittman will be featured in a free screening Friday afternoon.  Now, how cool would it be to meet Ernest Gaines!

What would also be at the top of my list is the Jazz it Up opening reception Friday night featuring a cochon de lait and a jazz band but best of all it will be held at Shadows on the Teche, the plantation home Weeks Hall who was a friend of Lyle Saxon and a fascinating character!  This plantation is on my bucket list.  Lyle took Cammie Henry there to see it a couple of times and to meet Weeks Hall.

This festival is filled with events that would keep me running and spinning all weekend!  There is an Academic Symposium, panel discussions, an author's fair, a 5k run (I would skip that one), and even Bouree Lessons!

If I were dreaming up the perfect festival, this would be it.

If you are able to go, I would highly recommend it!  I'd love to go but the package ticket price is $190 and is out of my reach at the moment since this is the year that everything in my house is broken.  (So far this year, since January 1, we've had to replace the blower in the furnace, the washing machine, a living room window, sections of plumbing in the kitchen, had to do some electrical work in the kitchen, replace the battery in one car, and the list goes on and on, right down to phone chargers.)  Given all those expenses, spending money on festival tickets and a hotel seem rather out of my league right now.

New Iberia is beautiful all of the time but especially so in the spring.  This could not be a more perfect weekend trip.

If you go, send pictures!






If you like this post, please share it!  If you love this post, please hit the donate button on the sidebar!

Take a Trip to Miss Cammie's Dinner Table

Steve and I went to Natchitoches yesterday to see the Cammie Henry exhibit at Lemee House:  Miss Cammie's Dinner table.  It was a nicely done presentation and I got to see one of the famous tablecloths that Cammie did.  On special occasions she would break out the tablecloth and everyone would sign it.  She would go back later and embroider the names in colored thread.

I'm sure there were several of these tablecloths and the one we saw yesterday had dates after her death which was puzzling.  Another mystery to solve.  Someone else must have picked up the tradition.  Some of the names are family members, some friends, some writers and artists that visited her.

There was a descendant of Cammie's at the exhibit with (I presume) his son.  I wanted to try to talk with him, but so did everyone else, so I didn't get a chance before he made his exit.  Wish I knew who it was.  I'd like to ask him a few questions!

It was too hot to walk around much.  Front Street still had plenty of shoppers but it was light traffic.

We parked down by the river and walked up to Lasyone's for meat pies, then walked down to Lemee House for the exhibit.  Even though it was hot, I love walking around the Historic District.  It's just beautiful.

Even when it's hot.

We passed Bayou Amulet and we thought the marker was interesting.

After the exhibit we went back up Front Street and dipped into an antique shop (thank goodness for air conditioning).  I bought a vintage glass doorknob strictly for practical purposes -- that's what I have in my house and I needed one.  At Kaffie-Frederick I bought two reproduction/modern glass doorknobs (I have a doorknob problem) that are not nearly as cool, or as heavy, but are functional.  Doors without knobs are difficult.

We wanted to eat alligator at The Pioneer Pub for dinner but they don't open until four (although as it turned out later, they were closed up for vacation and we missed out altogether) so we got into the Jeep and headed down the river road to Melrose.  I needed the inspiration.

Steve sat on the back porch of the Bindery and I walked around the grounds.  He likes to sit there and listen to the cows, but even the cows were quiet and still in that heat.

I headed over to Lyle Saxon's cabin - the Yucca House.

It's so peaceful there...

...who couldn't write a book there?

I'd hang a swing at the end of this gallery...

...and watch the horse in the pasture just beyond the fence.

You see him?

I sat there for a few minutes pondering Lyle, Cammie, Ada, Carrie, and all the others that had come to Melrose in the 1920s and 30s for inspiration and camaraderie.  They had a wonderful time!  And part of the lure, or charm, was the isolation.  Even though Melrose looks a little different now, the grounds I mean, the aura or mystique is still there.  When Cammie lived there the place was a riot of color and blooms with something planted or growing just about everywhere.  The grounds are meticulously kept now and are certainly beautiful, but I suspect Cammie would want to sink her spade into the dirt and plant something.  I can just hear her calling Carrie Dormon:  "Bring me some of that yaupon!"

I wandered up to the Big House and went up on the front gallery where Mother Garrett, Cammie's mother, would often sit and visit with callers.

You can't see the river from up there anymore because of all the growth, but back then you could.  The river is on the other side of that road, although it's not really a river anymore.  Now it's Cane River Lake.

I sat up on the gallery for a bit listening to voices gathering below for the next tour through the grounds and house.  There are still remnants of bygone days here, too.

I looked over at "the pit" where Leudivine used to put her geraniums in the winter and where Cammie would store plants to protect them from the cold.  I wondered what was growing in all that open area when Cammie was alive.  There are pictures but the ones I've seen so far are all black and white, so it's hard to tell what was where.

There were a few dirt daubers up there with me catching the breeze, and I don't know if they sting or not, so I went on back downstairs.

I walked around a little more, I walked up to the road and the fence and looked at the house.  I wandered around the cabin Cammie moved to Melrose in 1934 for the purpose of storing her looms.  Cammie would escape the bustle of the guests and tourists and come over to her cabin and practice the lost arts of spinning and weaving.  She made beautiful fabrics, blankets, and upholstery.

Steve and I walked over to the barn and looked for the cat, but we didn't see her.  She was probably asleep in the cool shadows underneath.

We drove back to town, found the Pub still closed, so we headed back to Shreveport.

When I was falling asleep last night I was thinking about Lyle and the cabin.  How hot was it trying to sleep out there in the summer, cicadas singing, mosquitoes, gnats and who knows what other critters trying to get at you.  We saw a fox crossing the road out there and Cammie often wrote about skunks getting under the cabin until she rectified that by modifying the floor.  Malaria was a common malady for the Melrose folks.  But it was apparently worth it for the inspiration and peace that could be found there.

There's still a mystique in the air when you go to Melrose; I'm not sure I can explain what it is, but it's something.  Not ghosts.  Atmosphere, maybe.  I can see exactly why writers and artists longed to be there.

 Like Lyle Saxon said the first time he saw Yucca House, "I could write a book here."

The SIGIS Take a Trip Series:

Take a Trip on Route 66 from Oklahoma City to Miami OK

Take a Trip to Coushatta, See the Lawnmower Man, and a Crop Duster

Take a Trip to the 2014 Cross Lake Floatilla:  Loving the Lake Life

Take a Trip to the Barskdale AFB First Annual Luau

Take a Trip to the 2013 Highland Jazz and Blues Festival

Take a Trip to Natchitoches for a Sons of the American Revolution Grave Marking Ceremony and Some Gator Bites

Take a Trip to the Sixth Annual Barksdale Oktoberfest

Take One More Quick Trip to Jefferson, Texas and Explore Room 104

Take a Trip to the Cross Lake Flotilla 2013

Take a Spontaneous Mother's Day Trip to Jefferson, Texas

Take a Trip Along East Texas Back Roads

Take a Trip to the "Going Green on the Red River" Festival

Take a Springtime Drive Down the Cane River Heritage Trail

Take a Spring Break Trip to Arcadia Louisiana

Take a Trip to the 2012 Natchitoches Christmas Festival
Take a Trip to the 2012 Grand Cane Pioneer Day and Christmas Parade

Take a Trip to the 2012 Highland Jazz and Blues Festival

Take a Trip to the 2012 Vets for Vets Event

Take a Trip to the Norton Art Gallery and the Photographs of the Vietnam War Exhibit

Take a Trip to Octoberfest 2012 at Barksdale Air Force Base

Take a Picnic Trip to the Lock and Dam and a Detour to Lake Bistineau

Take a Dinner Ride Through East Texas

Take a Trip to an End of Summer Party and Listen to Soulfish Blues Band

Take a Summer Trip to Jefferson, Texas and Meet New Friends

Take a Trip to Dallas, Texas and The West End

Take a Stocking the Freezer Trip to Ed Lester Farms and Find a Cool Truck!

Take a Trip to Coushatta Down Louisiana Backroads

Take a Trip to the 2012 Cross Lake Floatilla

Take a Sunday Drive in North Caddo Parish

Take a Trip to Minden's First Annual Cinco de Mayo Festival

Take a Trip to the 2012 Defenders of Liberty Air Show at BAFB
Take a Springtime Trip to Second Hand Rose Antiques in Minden, LA
Take a Trip to Logansport, Louisiana
Take a Trip to the Lock and Dam on Red River
Take a Trip to the 2012 Barkus and Meoux Parade
Take a Christmas Shopping Trip to Second Hand Rose in Minden
Take a Trip to the Fourth Annual Barksdale AFB Oktoberfest 
Take a Trip to Grand Cane's Fifth Annual Pioneer Trade Day
Take a Trip to the 2011 Highland Jazz & Blues Festival
Take an Autumn Trip to Jefferson, Texas
Take a Fall Trip to Second Hand Rose Antiques in Minden
Take a Trip to the 8th Air Force Museum at Barksdale Air Force Base
Take a Summertime Trip to Grand Cane
Take a Trip to Desoto Parish
Take a Summer Trip to Second Hand Rose Antiques in Minden
Take a Trip to Natchitoches and Melrose Plantation 
Take a Trip to Ed Lester Farms and a Random Antique Stop
Take a Trip to the Norton Art Gallery and the Masters of Cuban Art Exhibit
Take a Trip to Natchitoches to See the Christmas Lights
Take a Trip to the Third Annual BAFB Oktoberfest 
Take a Trip to Natchitoches and Oakland Plantation

Take a Trip to Jefferson, Texas 

Full Metal Jacket Saturday:  The Oktoberfest Edition

Oktoberfest at BAFB