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Gypsy Lou Webb and poet Charles Bukowski, pictured in Tucson, Arizona (THNOC,
2011.0427.31; gift of Edwin J. Blair)
In 1965 the ever-restless Webbs moved to Tucson, Arizona, where they published the last installment of the Outsider and two books by Henry Miller: Order and Chaos Chez Hans Reichel (1966), which received an award from the Type Directors Club, and Insomnia: Or, the Devil at Large (1970), an elaborate production that included the book itself, reproductions of 12 Miller watercolors, and a large, handmade wooden box bearing a photograph of Miller and his wife, Hoki Tokuda, as well as a personalized nameplate for the subscriber.
As with the Outsider, the Loujon books were beautiful labors of love: they were typeset by Gypsy Lou, printed by Jon, and assembled by them both at home—a process that became more
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arduous as Jon’s health declined. He died June 9, 1971, in Nashville, Tennessee, after which Gypsy Lou eventually made her way back to New Orleans, where she lives today.
In August 2013 The Historic New Orleans Collection will present Alternative Imprints: Jon Webb, Gypsy Lou, and the Hand-Sewn World of the Loujon Press at the Williams Research Center. Through photographs, Loujon publications from the Edwin J. Blair Collection (MSS 647), correspondence, and paintings by Noel Rockmore, the exhibition will explore Loujon’s small but celebrated catalog, as well as the Webbs’ relationships with other self-proclaimed outsiders in New Orleans and elsewhere.
—Nina Bozak
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Loujon s Le
When the oil business brought Edwin J. Blair to New Orleans, in January 1963, he was a young man from Southport, Connecticut, who craved connections beyond the Petroleum Club. A friend told him about the Outsider, Loujon Press’s avant-garde literary magazine, and Blair subsequently met Gypsy Lou Webb on Royal Street across from the old A&P grocery store, where she was selling her artwork as well as issues of the magazine. A friendship with both of the Webbs and a decades-long interest in the Loujon Press was born.
Edwin J. Blair, left, and Jon Webb are shown next to the Chandler and Price printing press that the Webbs received from the Tulane University drama department. Loujon Press used the press for much of its production. (THNOC, 2011.0427.24; gift ofEdwin J. Blair)
4 Volume XXX, Number 3 — Summer 2013


New Orleans Quarterly 2013 Summer (04)
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