Voodoo in New Orleans

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1946. First Edition. First printing. 8vo. 21cm x 14.5cm. Publisher's brick red cloth boards. Dustjacket. Titled and decorated in green to spine and front board, sharp and clean, some light minor edgewear, in a bright and dramatic priceclipped pictorial dustjacket with some edgewear and creasing, a semi-circular closed tear to the upper front panel and some shallow chipping and loss to extremities. A very presentable copy, not often seen in dustjacket. 247pp. Internally clean and fresh,decorative endpapers with the bookplate of D.E. Frye to the front pastedown. This copy has the added distinction of being signed by Tallant to the title page. A fascinating, if neccessarily sensationalist, evocation of the history and significance of "Voodoo" in New Orleans, from the earliest traces to the domestic realities via Marie Laveau, and the difficulty of separating the myth from the truth. Robert Tallant, a white collector and preserver of Louisiana folklore and cultural peculiarity, eandeavours to remain as truthful as he can within the limitations he possesses. With a foreword by his longtime friend, collaborator, and fellow New Orleans folklorist Lyle Saxon. Scarce thus.