A native of California, Stanley Clisby Arthur spent several years as a journalist and served as a war correspondent in the Philippines during the Spanish-American War. Arthur arrived in Louisiana in 1915 and came to view it as his adopted home, dedicating much of his life to documenting its customs, culture, and history. During the Great Depression, Arthur was appointed regional director of the Survey of Federal Archives. This allowed him to delve even more deeply into the history of New Orleans and Louisiana, and he published several more historical and cultural works, including Pelican's Famous New Orleans Drinks and How to Mix 'Em, Old Families of Louisiana, and Audubon: An Intimate Life of the American Woodsman. Stanley Clisby Arthur died in 1963 at the age of eighty-eight.