On Sunday November 11, 2007 from 1 to 3 p.m., the Slidell Branch of the St. Tammany Parish Library will host a reception to honor the lifetime achievement and literary contributions of Mrs. Louise Webb co-founder of the Loujon Press.
In 1960, Jon Edgar and Louise "Gypsy Lou" Webb founded Loujon Press on Royal Street in New Orleans's French Quarter. The small publishing house quickly became a giant. Heralded by the Village Voice and the New York Times as one of the best of its day, the Outsider, the press's literary review, featured, among others, Charles Bukowski, Allen Ginsberg, Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Robert Creeley, Denise Levertov, and Walter Lowenfels. Loujon published books by Henry Miller and two early poetry collections by Bukowski.
Guest speaker Dr. Jeff Weddle, author of Bohemian New Orleans, gives an insightful description of Loujon Press and the Outsider. Drawing on correspondence from many who were published in the Outsider, back issues of the Outsider, contemporary reviews, promotional materials, and interviews, Dr. Weddle shows how the press's mandarin insistence on production quality and its eclectic editorial taste made its work nonpareil among peers in the underground. Throughout, Bohemian New Orleans reveals the messy, complex, and vagabond spirit of a lost literary age.
Dr. Weddle is an assistant professor in the School of Library and Information Studies at the University of Alabama and holds a Ph.D. in Communications from the University of Tennessee. Bohemian New Orleans: The Story of the Outsider and the Loujon Press is his first book. It is the winner of the 2007 Eudora Welty Prize.
In honor of Mrs. Lou Webb, Dr. Weddle will give a short lecture and offer a 15 minute preview of a documentary on the Loujon Press. The film, directed by Wayne Ewing, premiers in November at the Starz Denver Film festival.   Bohemian New Orleans: The Story of the Outsider and the Loujon Press will be available for purchase and both Lou Webb and Dr. Weddle will be available for book signings.