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Lake Pontchartrain (Images of America) |
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Literature |
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Life on Lake Pontchartrain has been described countless
times in writing. In 1852, Harriet Beecher Stowe included a description in Uncle Tom's Cabin: “The lake lay in rosy
or golden streaks, save where white-winged vessels glided hither and thither". Mark Twain
had quite a bit to say about Lake Pontchartrain in Life on the Mississippi. Some quotes include: "Thousands of people
come by rail and carriage to West End and to Spanish Fort every evening, and dine, listen to the bands, take strolls in the
open air under the electric lights, go sailing on the lake, and entertain themselves in various and sundry other ways"
and "We had dinner on a ground-veranda over the water--the chief dish the renowned fish called the pompano, delicious
as the less criminal forms of sin." Kate Chopin apparently enjoyed "The large expanse of water
studded with pleasure-boats, the sight of children playing merrily along the grassy palisades, the music...". Alice Dunbar
said, "Now, a picnic at Milneburg is a thing to be remembered for ever" while Eliza Ripley wrote, "a dinner
at 'Lake End' was an occasion". William Faulkner's 1927 novel is not regarded as among his best but in Mosquitoes he
wrote about the Nausikaa, a yacht docked in the New Basin Canal and the people who sailed on it. By 2006, Poppy Z. Brite was
poking fun at Louisiana gaming laws as they related to gambling boats ..."Because the law allowed them to remain in port
if sailing conditions were dangerous, the captains came up with all sorts of creative threats to their vessels".
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Excerpts from New Orleans City Park (Images of America)
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