Shantyboat On The Bayous

About this book

Since the publication of Shantyboat: A River Way of Life in 1953 Harlan Hubbard achieved a wide reputation as a modern-day Thoreau. Not content simply to advocate a life of simplicity and self-sufficiency Hubbard and his wife Anna in 1944 built with their own hands a houseboat on the banks of the Ohio near Cincinnati and in 1946 set out on a leisurely five-year journey down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. Shantyboat Hubbards recounting of their journey to New Orleans and Payne Hollow: Life on the Fringe of Society his sequel telling of their life in a corner of rural Kentucky after their return won him a host of readers. Shantyboat on the Bayous is the middle chapter of the Hubbard saga. It tells of Harlan and Annas voyage of explorations into the remote reaches of Louisiana. For more than a year after reaching New Orleans the Hubbards meandered through the lush Cajun country on the Intracoastal Waterway along Bayou Lafourche thought the marshes around Avery Island and finally up the storied Bayou Teche toward the farthest point of navigation. The story of these travels along with the authors illustrations of the bayou country offers a portrait of one of the most unusual and least-known regions of our country and of the people who inhabit it. In this book the Hubbards once again demonstrate their gift for living in simple and eloquent harmony with the land. As Don Wallis notes in his foreword Shantyboat on the Bayous completes Hubbards autobiography of "the life he shared with Anna self-created and self-sustained difficult and joyful full of achievement and discovery diligence pleasure and reward." Here is a jewel of a travel book certain to be treasured by Hubbards many admirers and discovered by scores of new ones.