Howard Philips Smith

Howard Philips Smith is an author and historian living in Los Angeles. He has written the first history of the gay Carnival scene entitled Unveiling the Muse: The Lost History of Gay Carnival in New Orleans. This publication documents the origins of the first gay Carnival krewes up to the present day and posits this history within the larger context of traditional Carnival celebrations in the city.

He has also written the first and definitive history of the Southern Decadence celebration: Southern Decadence in New Orleans. This publication traces the modest beginnings of the annual festival in 1972 and culminates with the week-long juggernaut that has become Southern Decadence, a predominantly gay-centric series of events at the end of August.

A Sojourn in Paradise: Jack Robinson in 1950s New Orleans is the first book dedicated to this photographer's work in New Orleans published in 2020 by the University Press of Mississippi. The Cult of the Mask; Or, the Strange and Delectable Tale of Life Among the Sybarites is a historical novel set in early 1980s New Orleans, which explores the queer community during that time with characters and places now lost.

In 2025 Smith published his monumental study of artist George Dureau: George Valentine Dureau-Life and Art in New Orleans. This publication includes 100 photographic plates, many unpublished and in color, as well as work by contemporary artists during the 1980s.