Herbert Asbury (1889–1963)

Early San Francisco was a profoundly strange city. The Gold Rush exploded a sleepy port into an expensive haven of vice and villainy, designed to separate miners and sailors from their cash with booze, prostitution, and blunt objects. The dense area of houses of ill-repute, named the Barbary Coast, was a real-life version of that Simpsons song about New Orleans. Asbury's book is from 1933, and takes pretty much every lurid newspaper article from the time at face value. There are some show more interesting anecdotes about such characters as Dirty Tom McAlear, who would eat or drink anything for a few cents and hadn't had a bath in fifteen years, to wars between proprietors of vice and the vigilant Vigilance Committee, or the various ruses used to shanghai sailors onto new ships, but overall this book is just long, early 20th century scandalizing about admittedly very bad vice, without much of an organizing framework. show less

Asbury, in episodic fashion, makes the case that from the time of the Gold Rush (1849) to 1917, San Francisco was the wickedest city on earth. And he backs it up with tales of crime, gambling, gangs, and prostitution that will make you wonder how honest citizens could be brave enough to leave their homes! Sometimes when they did leave their homes, it was to join large groups of vigilantes who, for a short time at least, were able to take the law into their own hands and mete out their harsh show more form of justice, although from Asbury's account, it probably was justice in most cases. In any case, Asbury has covered wickedness up one side and down the other--which would have cost you about 50 cents in one of San Francisco's numerous bagnios. show less

I concluded I would have to read Gangs of New York after hearing that it had stuck with Martin Scorsese for forty years until he was able to make the movie of the same name. With that much staying power it did not disappoint. The endless gangs and characters become a blur, and the amount of crime staggers the imagination. I often thought the Cagney era gangster names and lingo were fantasies of Hollywood, but they were nothing compared to the reality. From the Plug Uglies to the Whyos to the show more Baxter Street Dudes the gangs constantly morphed with each new wave of immigration. Little Augie, Goo Goo Knox and the Turtle were just a few in this cast of millions. The story of any one of them could carry a movie or a book devoted to them alone. A compelling read, but be warned the level of violence that was the reality makes the movie of this world look mild. show less

If contemplating whether to read "The French Quarter: An Informal History of the New Orleans Underworld," consider first this fact about the book's author, Herbert Asbury: Asbury's initial fame came in 1926 when H.L. Mencken published in Mencken's magazine, "The American Mercury," an article by Asbury about a small-town Missouri prostitute who serviced her Protestant customers in a Catholic cemetery, and vice-versa. The article achieved sufficient notoriety to get Mencken's magazine promptly show more banned in Boston. Adroitly sensing a promotional opportunity too golden to miss, Mencken quickly ventured to Boston, openly sold his magazine on the Boston Common, and was arrested with all deliberate haste. Mencken's magazine sales subsequently skyrocketed across the country, and Asbury's renown was assured.

Asbury brings the same (in)sensibilities required to write for national publication an article about a strumpet plying her trade in pastoral cemeteries to "The French Quarter." Reading other reviews will amply inform prospective readers regarding this wonderful book's stories about New Orleans, and how Asbury spins them so well for his audience. On a cautionary note, as may be expected in a book written many decades ago about racially charged times in a capital of the South, "The French Quarter" is far from politically correct by any modern measure. Proceed accordingly, but do proceed -- it's a fun, fantastic, and essential journey through the long, twisted history of one of America's great cities. show less