Author Julia Reed. Photo by Nancy Jacobs
Major Works
- Julia Reed’s New Orleans: Food, Fun, and Field Trips for Letting the Good Times Roll (2019)
- South Toward Home: Adventures and Misadventures in My Native Land (2018)
- One Man’s Folly: The Exceptional Houses of Furlow Gatewood (2014)
- But Mama Always Put Vodka in Her Sangria! Adventures in Eating, Drinking, and Making Merry (Apr 30, 2013)
- New Orleans, New Elegance (2012) with Kerri McCaffety
- Ham Biscuits, Hostess Gowns, and Other Southern Specialties: An Entertaining Life (with Recipes) (Apr 28, 2009)
- The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story (2008)
- Queen of the Turtle Derby and Other Southern Phenomena (2005)
Biography of Julia Reed
Julia Evans Reed, a prolific writer on life in the American South, was born in Greenville, Mississippi, in 1960. She died in Newport on August 28, 2020, of cancer at the age of 59. As a young girl, Julia went to the Madeira School for Girls at age sixteen near McLean, Virginia. She began taking classes at Georgetown University but then transferred to and graduated from American University.
She started working at Newsweek magazine as an intern in 1977 and went on to become Contributing Editor and columnist. She was contributing editor and senior writer at Vogue for twenty years. She became a Contributing Editor at Elle Magazine and at Garden and Gun Magazine (for which she also wrote columns). She also wrote articles for the New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, and the Wall Street Journal.
Julia Reed in Oxford, MS. Photo by Nancy Jacobs
Well known as a humorist and a “master of the art of eating, drinking, and making merry,” according to her publisher, her books include One Man’s Folly: The Exceptional Houses of Furlow Gatewood (2014), But Mama Always Put Vodka in Her Sangria! Adventures in Eating, Drinking, and Making Merry (Apr 30, 2013), New Orleans, New Elegance (2012) with Kerri McCaffety, Ham Biscuits, Hostess Gowns, and Other Southern Specialties: An Entertaining Life (with Recipes) (Apr 28, 2009), The House on First Street: My New Orleans Story (2008) and Queen of the Turtle Derby and Other Southern Phenomena (2005)
Queen of the Turtle Derby by Julia Reed
She met and married her husband John Pearce, an attorney, at age 42. Julia and John bought a house in New Orleans, Louisiana, which they renovated after it survived Katrina. She recently launched a business with her friend Keith Meacham called Reed Smythe & Company. Reed divided her time between her hometown of Greenville, Mississippi, New York, Washington D.C. and New Orleans.
Recently she also opened a bookstore, Brown Water Books, in the historic Wetherbee House in Greenville, Mississippi, and built a house she called “the Folly” to be near her parents.
Related Websites
- Tribute to Julia Evans Reed by Garden and Gun magazine by Jon Meacham.
- Obituary for Julia Reed in The Times-Picayunne on Nola.com
- Julia Reed Talks Southern Hospitality and Breaking into Journalism. Washingtonian, 2014.
- The Julia Effect – Literary and Culinary Mashup, 2014. Lagniappe.
- Interview with Julia in The Memphis Flyer (2008)
- The Delta 101 by Julia Reed. Delta Magazine
- A collection of Julia Reed’s columns in Garden and Gun.
- Julia Reed’s stolen jewelry sold.
- Information about Julia Reed’s house in New Orleans
- Off the Page: Julia Reed’s South
- Julia Reed on Facebook