Joseph J. DeSalvo, Jr.

Joseph J. Desalvo, Jr.

with Charles Henry Rowell

ROWELL: As proprietor of this New Orleans institution, Faulkner House Bookstore (Pirate's Alley), you are in an extraordinary position to comment on New Orleans's writing communities. What would you say has been the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the literary community of this city?

DESALVO: On the positive side I think there's been a burst of creativity, spawned by the storm, in the form of all the Katrina and post-Katrina books, as well as books like my wife's [Rosemary James's My New Orleans: Ballads to the Big Easy by Her Sons, Daughters, and Lovers], which is more about New Orleans—what New Orleans is, has been, and, we all hope, will be. But on the negative side, I guess what's happened is that we've lost so much of our population and virtually all of our visitors so that the support for the literary community has diminished to a great extent. The New Orleans Arts Council and the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities have been severely restricted in their ability to fund the arts and the arts communities.

ROWELL: Why are they restricted?

DESALVO: I think it's simply a lack of available money. The taxes that the city and the state have been receiving have been so diminished by the destruction of the homes, which drastically reduces the property tax revenues, and we don't have the visitors, so there's a substantial diminution of the sales tax income. Then, too, a lot small businesses are closed and half of the people have just left the city, so income and franchise tax receipts are lower. All of that has an impact that the arts and literary communities here in this city have felt.

ROWELL: What do you see or imagine as the future of New Orleans?

DESALVO: I think the city will return, and life here will be what it once was, but this will take time. It's not something that's going to happen overnight. So much seems beyond our control. We need to get through this hurricane season unscarred. Assuming that occurs, there will be, I think, a burst of activity in the city: home building, home restoration, a returning population. That will continue until we return to some state of normalcy again.

ROWELL: Do you think late summer and fall seasons without violent hurricanes will make a difference for New Orleans?

DESALVO: I do. We'll start getting our visitors back. That will obviously improve the city's and the state's revenues. There have been a lot of national organizations—for example, the Rockefeller Foundation—that have helped the arts community in the meantime

ROWELL: If you could make a national statement in support of literature and the arts here in New Orleans, what would you say to the larger American community?

DESALVO: I sincerely believe that there is something very special about New Orleans, as you must know. So much wonderful art and literature have come out of this area—art and literature that the whole country has enjoyed and continues to enjoy.

Now, in a time of dire need, we need the support of the rest of the country to help us over the bad spot we find ourselves in. Our fellow Americans need to help us financially, if they can; they need to try to encourage people to return to the city, to promote the city, to hold their meetings and their conventions, and whatever else, here in New Orleans. Please don't forget us and don't take us for granted.

ROWELL: I like your letting the American public know that much has been done here in literature. But your words and how you utter them are so very modest. As I sit here in your office, here in the Faulkner House Bookstore, I look...