Talk of the Town

Book excerpt: As the sleepy courthouse town of Alexandria, Louisiana, began to recover from the devastation and trauma of the Civil War and Reconstruction, the Daily Town Talk appeared. Nicknamed Alexandria's postage stamp paper by a rival publication, the Town Talk aimed to be the best daily outside of New Orleans and became one of the most successful regional newspapers of its kind. Fredrick M. Spletstoser tells the story of the paper's first sixty years and of the town's triumphs and setbacks during that same time. An unpretentious country journal, the Town Talk would become in the second half of the twentieth century a pioneer in newspaper technology under the leadership of Joe D. Smith, one of the most respected names in American journalism. The Town Talk was inextricably bound up with - and often directly behind - transformations in Alexandria's urban landscape, the development of municipal services and education, efforts to attract industry and cultivate trade, and the stimulation of surrounding agribusiness. occurred across the turn of the century, the large and enduring military presence in central Louisiana, and the impact of Huey P. Long's political career. Along the way, he narrates colorful stories culled from the Town Talk's pages and describes the fascinating family members who published the paper during this entire period. Talk of the Town illustrates the role provincial journalism played in the planning and expansion of towns throughout the country as it relates the engrossing history of one southern place and the people who lived there.