Our local international publisher

Just across the river from New Orleans in Gretna is the Louisiana-based international publisher that has published some of your favorite books, including Zig Ziglar’s See You at the Top, Justin Wilson Looking Back: A Cajun Cookbook, James Rice’s Cajun Night Before Christmas, and more recently, Peggy Sweeny-McDonald’s Meanwhile, Back at Café du Monde….

Dr. Milburn Calhoun and his wife Nancy were book scouts in the 1960s, selling rare and out-of-print books through the mail. Their book storage space later became Bayou Books, a retail store. In 1970, they went to the regional Pelican Publishing Company to purchase some books and discovered the company that had published William Faulkner’s Sherwood Anderson and Other Famous Creoles in 1926 was closing in two days. Quickly, and with the help of Dr. Calhoun’s brother Jim, they bought the company from Betty and Hodding Carter.

Though Dr. Calhoun died in January 2012, Pelican is still a family-owned business. The Calhouns raised their daughter in the company, putting her to work at age 12 mailing catalogues to subscribers. Kathleen Calhoun Nettleton, now Pelican’s president, publisher and co-owner with her mother, worked in promotion after college, touring with authors such as James Rice.

Demonstrating her storytelling legacy, Nettleton told me the tall tale behind one of their most famous titles. In 1973, Dr. Calhoun was inspired by a Bergeron Plymouth radio jingle to ask aspiring illustrator Rice if he knew how to draw alligators. A week later, Rice returned with hundreds of drawings of alligators in various poses. Nettleton recalled Rice saying, “I guess I do know how to draw alligators.” This was the beginning of a 30-year collaboration with Rice, which led to numerous printings of Cajun Night Before Christmas and several more iconic children’s books. A large painting of Clement the alligator hung behind Nettleton as she shared the history of her family and the company.

Describing the change from regional to international, she said, “Our books are local somewhere.” Pelican publishes in many different languages and licenses the foreign rights to their books to publishers all over the world.

Pelican has a backlist of more than 2,500 and publishes more than 50 new titles a year, specializing in books they feel will have a lasting life and audience. They also buy the rights to books when their original publishers stop printing them. This was the case with Cocina Criolla and Puerto Rican Cookery by Carmen Aboy Valldejuli, which have each sold hundreds of thousands of copies. Pelican has kept both versions of the title in print through several editions, each one of which the author has revised.

A recent customer review on Amazon.com of Cocina Criolla says, “My mom owns this book. My grandma owns this book. All of my great aunts own it as well. And now that I’m getting married I just had to buy it. This is the bible of old school Puerto Rican cooking.”

Pelican also has an intensive publishing internship program with hands-on training in every department of the company, working closely with Pelican’s 34 employees.

In keeping with their “local somewhere” mentality, Pelican has published many of our beloved local books. You are very likely to find their titles on your own bookshelves.

Three years ago, Peggy Sweeny-McDonald, a creative event producer in Los Angeles, was visiting family in Baton Rouge for the holidays. The recession had hit her business hard, and she was struggling to find her next project. She met with an L.A. friend, the actress Lisa Annitti, who was working in Shreveport and relayed a funny misadventure with a bottle of wine and a coconut pie that inspired her.

Growing up in Louisiana, Sweeny-McDonald had heard many amusing and touching stories featuring food. She even had some of her own—many centering on Café du Monde, which had been her neighborhood mainstay when she lived in New Orleans.

She quickly put together a live show, reaching out to family and friends to find performers for the premiere of “Meanwhile, Back at Café du Monde…,” in May 2010 at the Myrtles Plantation. Luckily, in Louisiana, there is no shortage of experts on the subjects of life and food. In addition to Annitti, Sweeny-McDonald was able to line up such local stars as Paul Arrigo, Chef Don Bergeron, Donna Britt, Todd Graves, Leah Simon and Daron Stiles to perform their food monologues.

A second Baton Rouge show quickly followed at the Lyceum Ballroom. It included some of the original performers as well as new ones like Jeff Kleinpeter.

In total, there have been more than 30 performances in Louisiana, Mississippi and California. And now it’s become a book, published by Pelican Publishing. The forward by Café du Monde owner Karen Benrud celebrates the café’s 150th anniversary and its place in New Orleans history.

The heavy and handsome book includes transcripts of food monologues, recipes and photos— many by Troy Kleinpeter, the project’s official photographer. Many of the folks who offer their food narratives in Meanwhile, Back at Café du Monde… are famous, and others will be familiar locally. You’d be hard-pressed not to find a connection here to the people we know, the food we love and the stories about both that resonate.

For information on upcoming events, go to meanwhilebackatcafedumonde.com.