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  • From: lowry.charles AT gmail.com
  • To: percy-l AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [[percy-l] ] Evelyn Waugh: Ash Wednesday in New Orleans
  • Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2024 15:44:47 -0500

Evelyn Waugh did not particularly like the United States, but he discovered
that when he was short of funds, a North American lecture tour was an
excellent tonic. As part of the tour, he arranged to be in New Orleans on
Mardi Gras and Ash Wednesday. After the merriment of the former, he spent
the latter in front of his hotel, the Roosevelt, or maybe the Fairmont—I’m
not sure when the name changed. The hotel sits across Baronne Street from
Immaculate Conception, known as Jesuit Church. This was his reflection:

“The Jesuit church was teeming with life all day long, a continuous dense
crowd of all colors and conditions moving up to the altar rails and returning
with their foreheads signed with ash…. All that day, all over that
light-hearted city, one encountered the little black smudge on the forehead
which sealed us members of a great brotherhood who can both rejoice and
recognize the limits of rejoicing.”

Happy Birthday, Binx!

  • [[percy-l] ] Evelyn Waugh: Ash Wednesday in New Orleans, lowry . charles, 02/14/2024

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