Date of Award

1999

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

History

First Advisor

Charles J. Shindo

Abstract

This is the interwoven story of Natalie Vivian Scott, war hero, author, adventurer and humanitarian, and the French Quarter Renaissance during the 1920s, when Natalie Scott was a vital member of the talented coterie of writers and artists whose talents prospered there, including Sherwood Anderson, William Faulkner, William Spratling, Lyle Saxon, Roark Bradford, Oliver La Farge, John Dos Passos, Hamilton Basso, Meigs Frost, among others. This work's premise is that the decayed, crumbling French Quarter, falling into irreversible decline, was saved during the early 1920s by an outburst of local creativity and organizational energy that inspired restoration and a unique, historically significant cultural revival. The participants included a remarkable array of artists, writers, stage performers, poets and journalists, the most famous being major products of this renaissance, but not its progenitors. This artistic and literary colony was the most significant in Southern U.S. history, and among the most important of the American twentieth century. Natalie Scott was instrumental in each of the key forces that created and shaped the French Quarter Renaissance. After being awarded France's highest medal, the Croix de Guerre, for her heroism during World War I, this Southern bred and Newcomb educated war heroine returned to New Orleans and became a feature writer, social editor, and columnist for the New Orleans States. As a founder, playwright and performer with the Petit Theatre du Vieux Carre; a staff member of the Double Dealer literary magazine; close friend of Anderson, Spratling, Faulkner, La Farge, Saxon and other key figures; a pioneer in Vieux Carre; renewal investments and the leading social columnist in the city, Natalie Scott serves as an ideal vehicle to document the recovery of the French Quarter, and its service as the creative incubator for an astonishing array of important young talents.

ISBN

9780599262317

Pages

506

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.6924

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