556. Today we
talk with Richard Sexton and Randolf Delehanty about the 2nd edition of their classic work,
New
Orleans: Elegance and Decadence. The book focuses on the
interiors, furnishings, art collections, and gardens of a
handful of creative people in New Orleans in the 1990s. Dreamers
and urban pioneers, they included bohemian artists, artisans,
architects, preservationists, activists, antiquarians,
restaurateurs, and teachers, all living outside the American
mainstream. They tolerated crumbling plaster, exposed lathe, and
sagging galleries in exchange for communal festivity and joie de
vivre. Richard is returning to the Podcast after an earlier
visit when we discussed his book,
Creole
World.