Charles Whitfield Richards: The Artist and His Circle
By J. Michael Warner
Coming August 2025
About the Book
Charles Whitfield Richards: The Artist and His Circle is the first book-length biography of the artist and journalist, whose career spanned Jazz Age Paris to modern New Orleans. He found himself at the center of the New Orleans art community from the 1930s to the 1990s, and illustrated Jeanne deLavigne’s memorable book, Ghost Stories of Old New Orleans.
Born in the Mississippi Delta in 1906, Richards showed early talent for writing and drawing. But a string of tragedies drove Richards to an itinerant lifestyle. This wanderlust led him to drop out of school and travel, first with a circus and then as a merchant marine. He studied art in Kansas City and Paris before his 1927 arrival in New Orleans. From then until the 1940s, he served as correspondent for newspapers throughout the South and in New York. His insightful interviews of prominent personalities, illustrated by his own hand, earned enduring fans. But job anxieties forced Richards to leave newspaper work in 1945 and turn full time to portraiture and landscape painting, while making New Orleans his hub.
Recognized as a genuine French Quarter character, Richards had a lasting influence on New Orleans art and on notable figures in the city’s culture: Noel Rockmore, Roark Bradford, Bertha Rolfe, Morris Henry Hobbs, Larry Borenstein, Enrique Alferez and others.
About the Author
J. Michael Warner grew up in New Orleans, where he learned how to write a good story and cook the best bread pudding. Once a practitioner of patent law, he holds a diploma in creative writing from the University of Cambridge and now writes fiction and nonfiction. Charles Whitfield Richards was a finalist in the Faulkner-Wisdom Competition for Nonfiction Book.
Praise for Charles Whitfield Richards
“This edifying biography brings not only Richards to life, but also the always-evolving artistic culture of the South, as vibrant as it was fraught. An incisive and enlightening snapshot of a neglected artist and his time.”—Kirkus Reviews (read the full review here.)
“The New Orleans we know in the 2020s would not be the same if it weren’t for the artists and lovers of the French Quarter of the 1920s–1970s. J. Michael Warner’s illuminating biography of Charles Whitfield Richards is a window into a world that feels gone in many respects, but also still present in the streets and buildings of the French Quarter and in the people who cherish it.”— Daniel Hammer, CEO, Historic New Orleans Collection
“Author J. Michael Warner captivates readers with the vividly rendered adventures of artist Charles Richards and an engaging panoply of his bohemian friends, following them through 1920s Paris, New York and later, the ever-fascinating French Quarter.”— Ellis Anderson, publisher of the French Quarter Journal, author of Under Surge Under Siege
© 2025 J. Michael Warner
9781959569275 | Paperback with color photo insert | 6" x 9" | August 2025