One day Joe Gilmore came to Lyle Saxon and told him that he needed a job. Joe got a job, and Lyle gained a friend for life. Joe Gilmore became the most trusted and reliable person in Lyle Saxon’s life—Joe did everything, including mix drinks, drive the car, give massages, oversee construction, and anything else that was asked of him. Through it all he never stopped smiling. This book will introduce you to the people Joe knew, and the places he and Mr. Saxon went together, including Lyle Saxon’s small eighteenth-century cabin on Melrose Plantation.
We’ll never know what impression Mr. Saxon really made on Joe Gilmore, but we know that Joe made a lasting impression on him. Lyle Saxon made the writing of this book his final act, even to the point of having to dictate the stories it contains. Lyle Saxon died in 1946. He had had many acquaintances, some of them very close, but the man who had left the most indelible mark of all had been both a servant and a friend. Also included in the book is a brief but fascinating group of stories about Lyle Saxon written by his friend Edward Dreyer.
About the Author
Lyle Saxon (1891-1946) ranks among Louisiana’s most outstanding writers. During the 1920s and 1930s, he was the central figure in the region’s literary community and was widely known as a raconteur and bon vivant. In addition to Lafitte the Pirate and Children of Strangers, he also wrote Fabulous New Orleans, Old Louisiana, Father Mississippi: The Story of the Great Flood of 1927, and was a coauthor of Gumbo Ya-Ya: Folk Tales of Louisiana with Edward Dreyer and Robert Tallant. During the Depression he directed the state WPA Writers’ Project, which produced the WPA Guide to Louisiana and the WPA Guide to New Orleans.
THE FRIENDS OF JOE GILMORE
By Lyle Saxon
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Literary
224 pp. 6 x 9
14 Illustrations
ISBN: 9781565544499 pb (F)