Jay Edwards Author

Jay Dearborn Edwards is a professor of anthropology at Louisiana State University, where he has taught courses in anthropology, folklore, and vernacular architecture for more than thirty years. A lifelong student of the historic vernacular and Creole architecture of Louisiana, the Gulf South, and the West Indies, Edwards is the author, coauthor, or editor of four previous books: Cajun Country; Historic Louisiana Nails: Aids to the Dating of Old Buildings; Louisiana's Remarkable French Vernacular Architecture; and Plantations by the River: Watercolor Paintings from St. Charles Parish, Louisiana, by Father Joseph M. Paret, 1859, winner of the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities Book of the Year Award.

Born in Paris, Nicolas Kariouk Pecquet du Bellay de Verton, grew up surrounded by various cultures and fluent in several languages. He received a bachelor of science degree in mechanical engineering from Columbia University in 1961. In 1995, he retired from his career in the nuclear-related sciences and subsequently earned a master's degree in anthropology from Louisiana State University. He lives in Baton Rouge.

The coauthors' collaboration was sparked by a fortuitous encounter which brought together Jay Edwards's profound interest in vernacular architecture and Nicolas Kariouk's lifelong love for etymology.