Pandemic Dreads

Several summers ago, to defray the cost of my tuition in college, I worked for a demolition crew in the French Quarter in New Orleans. As the crew was removing the debris from the remains of a house, one of the workers found a box filled with papers. The house was located in the South East corner of Saint Ann and Bourbon. It had been the residence of a retired professor who had worked at the University of New Orleans for many years. The entire block of houses, covering Saint Ann, Bourbon, Orleans, and Royal, were leveled to build a hotel. Since I was the only "college boy" on the crew, the box of papers was given to me to dispose of. I took the box home and discovered, among other items, the typescript which follows this introduction. Moreover, under the manuscript were numerous sheets of carbon paper that had been used and depicted the trial of Clay Shaw. I have not changed anything from the manuscript written with a typewriter on onion paper. I have published the manuscript as is with all the grammatical errors and tried to keep it as the author (authors?) left it.

The manuscript is a collection of stories within a biography and autobiography. The author at the same time claims he is writing the biography of an acquaintance-he is also writing a great deal about himself. The text is filled with allusions to world-known writers by name and with numerous intertexts of their works. The creator was studying English at LSU in Baton Rouge and there are many allusions to the University, the students, and the town. He is very familiar with the Quarter and many of its inhabitants. Some of the book's sexual descriptions are very graphic and many readers will have a very negative reaction because of it, and yet, the depiction of some of the characters reflects a very careful character study of the subjects. The author claims to have been a chef at several Quarter restaurants for which I have not been able to find documentation. I also have been unable to find records about the subject of his biography: Tulane does not have the family in question as one of their founders. One must conclude then that the character in question never existed. LSU also does not have a record of that person attending the University.