A Cajun Chapbook

A Cajun Chapbook

£20.00

NAJ 33/34 (1992). A5 book, 184 pp. 109 illustrations

Arcadian = Acadian = Cajun: A Gardenist Compendium from the Arcadian Triangle (Europe, Canada, U.S.A.), with audio cassette tape, ‘A Cajun Musical Box’.

Includes two late 20th century gardens: The Improvement Garden by Ian Hamilton Finlay at Stockwood Park, Luton, UK, and The Garden of History by James Pierce at Pratt Farm, Maine, USA.

The Improvement Garden is the largest (and finest) of Finlay’s permanent landscape installations in England. In 2020, it was awarded Grade II* status by Historic England and added to the Register of Historic Gardens and Designed Landscapes in England.

For full details, see Description below

 

Description

Illustrations:

Chris Broughton, Howard Eaglestone (plus Cover), Christopher Fox, Ian Gardner, Andrew Griffiths, Gary Hincks, Dave Lee, Caroline Jones, Grahame Jones, Nicholas Sloan, Mark Stewart, Andrew Townsend, Peter Waite.

Audio Cassette Tape:

A Cajun Musical Box: Christopher Fox; Rico Bell and Jon-Boy Langford (of The Mekons); and Bayou Gumbo (a further 6 musicians); engineered by Rob Worby.

Texts:

~ Patrick Eyres. Arcady (Introduction. Arcadians, Acadians, Cajuns: enforced emigration, exile and transcendence).

I. ARCADIAN:

~ Patrick Eyres, Wendy Frith. In the Garden of Venus (sexual allusion in the 18C landscape garden at Stowe, with reference to Spring Gardens, Studley Royal, Hackfall and Medmenham).
~ Ian Hamilton Finlay. Six Proposals for the Improvement of Stockwood Park in the Borough of Luton (with Gary Hincks), 1985; and the Seventh Proposal (with Nicholas Sloan), 1992 (unrealized).
~ Patrick Eyres. A People’s Arcadia: the Ian Hamilton Finlay Sculpture Garden at Stockwood Park, Luton (opened, 1991).
~ Christopher Fox. Piano score and commentary: I sing for the Muses and myself (1992), composed for this NAJ as a tribute to Finlay; musical score and commentary: Nova Scotia, A New Ballad (1750).

II. ACADIAN:

~ Stuart Rawnsley. The Improving Landlord (18C estate Improvement and Scottish emigration to Nova Scotia and Acadia).
~ Michael Charlesworth. The Jumbled Bones of Acadie (Memories of Another Time culled from the US National Park Service Map of the Acadia National Park).
~ Michael Charlesworth. ‘Deep Down to the Secret Source of All’: Pratt Farm, Maine, Garden of History (the earthwork landscape constructed by James Pierce during the 1970s).
~ Patrick Eyres. Europe One, Acadia Cool. (A Meditation on ‘Happy Valley’ as a site of the pastoral, of camouflage and of the NATO airbase in Canada).

III. CAJUN:

~ Michael Charlesworth. Weathering the Storm, Cajun Style (resilience in the face of elemental and WASP pressures).
~ Harry Gumbo. La Musique des Cajuns.
~ Doyle Moore. Cajun Cooking (an essay and 6 recipes).