S ince the nineteenth century, much has been written on Marie Laveau. All those writings fueled the legend of the Voudou Queen but rarely told much about this free woman of color who lived in New Orleans through much of the nineteenth century. In the past four years, however, three scholarly works were published on this fascinating figure of the antebellum Crescent City. Carolyn Morrow Long's A New Orleans Voudou Priestess: The Legend and Reality of Marie Laveau is the latest addition to this series of publications. Her book discusses and adds to the two previously published books (respectively in 2004 and 2005) authored by Martha Ward (Voodoo Queen: The Spirited Lives of Marie Laveau) and Ina Fandrich (her 1994 dissertation published as The Mysterious Voodoo Queen, Marie Laveaux). These three books have added much to the knowledge on Marie Laveau, especially Long's, which came last and could thus discuss and correct some of the information contained in the previous two. To quote from Long's conclusion, "the purpose of this book is to separate legend from reality" (p. 207). To a large extent, she has managed to do