Ghosts Along The Mississippi: THe Magic of the Old Houses of Louisiana, New Revised Edition [Hardcover]

Clarence John Laughlin (Photographer)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 8, 1988

Dust jacket notes: "The Magic of the Old Houses of Louisiana...Clarence John Laughlin combines a deep feeling for his native Louisiana with his photographer's skill to produce a book that is remarkable and memorable. Ghosts Along the Mississippi presents the beauty and mystery of Louisiana's past in extraordinary photographs of old Louisiana homes. Now brought up to date, this new revised edition of Ghosts Along the Mississippi contains a hundred photographs and includes a summary of technical data....The plates are accompanied by facing texts containing factual data, along with the author's comments...."

Product Details

• Hardcover: 200 pages
• Publisher: Bonanza Books; Revised edition (February 8, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0517006081
• ISBN-13: 978-0517006085
• Product Dimensions: 13 x 10.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #296,423 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Tragic Queens of the Old South, March 27, 2000

By 

Randy Mistrot (New Orleans, Louisiana) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ghosts Along The Mississippi: THe Magic of the Old Houses of Louisiana, New Revised Edition (Hardcover)

This book contains heart breaking photos of mostly Louisiana Plantations, some Beautifully restored but most are tragic beauties gone for ever, it is the only source for most of these homes to still exist, many of these photos are the only images of these magnificent homes ever taken, read the book front to back and you will agree, it reads like a novel of the tragic queens of the old south.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A magnificent elegy for the antebellum south, July 24, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Ghosts Along The Mississippi: THe Magic of the Old Houses of Louisiana, New Revised Edition (Hardcover)

The evocative ruins of several Louisiana plantation houses are transformed by the brilliant photographs of Clarence Laughlin into a haunting elegy for a vanished society. Illustrating houses built between 1700 and 1861, the beautiful black-and-white photographs are especially useful now that many of these buildings have been destroyed. The text is best when it sticks to straightforward history about the buildings and their occupants. Laughlin is not nearly as talented a writer as he is a photographer, and his written attempts to describe the sensations evoked by these ruined structures sometimes become a bit pretentious. Worth having for those hot summer days when you want to indulge in a little Gone-With-the-Wind-style nostalgia for a world in which life was lived at a less hurried pace.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Part of Southern History, October 18, 2002

By 

Frances Ray (Houston, Texas USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ghosts Along The Mississippi: THe Magic of the Old Houses of Louisiana, New Revised Edition (Hardcover)

The Old South and particularly the Plantation homes is a subject that always interested me. This particular book is the best I have ever seen. Some of Mr. Laughlin's comments are a bit flowery, but for the most part, he captures the spirit of this time in history. I think it is wonderful that people have restored some of these homes back to their original splendor, but the pictures and the history of the homes that have long since been destroyed are the most interesting and are truly the "Ghosts Along the Mississippi".