Lecture and Film at UA Focuses on Bohemian New Orleans, Loujon Press and the Beat Generation

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Dr. Jeff Weddle, assistant professor in The University of Alabama School of Library and Information Studies will talk about his new book “Bohemian New Orleans: The Story of the Outsider and Loujon Press” and screen a documentary film on the subject Tuesday, Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. in 205 Gorgas Library.

The event will begin with a lecture on the small press/little magazine history and how Loujon fits into all of it. Weddle will then give a brief reading from the book.

Following the reading, there will be a brief intermission and then a screening of the fascinating documentary film, “The Outsiders of New Orleans: The Loujon Press,” that was directed by Wayne Ewing and co-produced by Weddle. The film premiered on Nov.11 at the Denver Film Festival. More information is available online at http://www.denverfilm.org/filmcenter/detail.aspx?id=21582

In 1960, Jon Edgar and Louise “Gypsy Lou” Webb founded the Loujon Press on Royal Street in the New Orleans 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 Loujon literary review, the Outsider, featured 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. “Bohemian New Orleans” traces the development of this courageous imprint and examines its place within the small press revolution of the 1960s. Weddle shows in the film how the press’s mandarin insistence on production quality and its eclectic editorial taste made its work stand out among peers in the underground through correspondence from many who were published in the Outsider, back issues of the Outsider, contemporary reviews, promotional materials and interviews. The film reveals the messy, complex and vagabond spirit of a lost literary age.

Weddle holds a doctorate in communications from the University of Tennessee and has a broad range of interests and expertise.