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Oliver La Farge | |
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| Born | Oliver Hazard Perry La Farge (1901-12-19)December 19, 1901 New York City, U.S. |
| Died | August 2, 1963(1963-08-02) (aged 61) Santa Fe, New Mexico, U.S. |
| Occupation | novelist,anthropologist |
| Education | Harvard University (BA,MA) |
Oliver Hazard Perry La Farge II (December 19, 1901 – August 2, 1963) was an American writer andanthropologist. In 1925 he explored earlyOlmec sites in Mexico, and later studied additional sites in Central America and the American Southwest. He wrote more than 15 scholarly works on this work, mostly about Native American culture.
In addition, he wrote several novels,Laughing Boy (1929), which won aPulitzer Prize. La Farge also wrote short stories, published in such prominent magazines asThe New Yorker andEsquire.
His more notable works, both fiction and non-fiction, emphasizeNative American culture. He was most familiar with theNavajo people and had a speaking knowledge of their language. They gave him a Navajo name, 'Anast'harzi Nez', meaning "Tall Cliff-Dweller".
Oliver La Farge was born in New York City but grew up in Newport, Rhode Island. He was the son ofChristopher Grant La Farge, a notedBeaux-Arts architect, and Florence Bayard Lockwood. His older brotherChristopher La Farge became a writer and was a novelist. La Farge and his paternal uncle, architect Oliver H.P. La Farge, were both named for their great-great-grandfatherOliver Hazard Perry.
La Farge received both his Bachelor of Arts degree (1924) and his master's degree (1929) from Harvard University.
La Farge worked as a writer and ananthropologist. In 1925, he traveled with the Danish archeologistFrans Blom, who taught at Tulane University, to what is now known as theOlmec heartland. He (re)discoveredSan Martin Pajapan Monument 1 and, more importantly, the ruins ofLa Venta, one of the majorOlmec centers.[1]
La Farge devoted considerable study to Native American peoples and issues, especially after moving toSanta Fe, New Mexico in 1933. He became a champion for American Indian rights and was president of theAssociation on American Indian Affairs for several years.[2]
During World War II, La Farge served with the U.S. Air Transport Command, ending service with the rank of major. He participated in the Battle for Greenland, commanded by ColonelBernt Balchen. Balchen, together withCorey Ford and La Farge, wroteWar Below Zero: The Battle for Greenland (1944), about the actions to defend Greenland.
La Farge married heiress Wanden Matthews and had two children with her: a son, Oliver Albee La Farge (b. 1931, later known asPeter La Farge) and a daughter, Povy. They moved to Santa Fe in 1933, but Wanden disliked the area. The couple divorced in 1937.
Their first son, Oliver Albee, became estranged from his father[why?] and changed his name toPeter La Farge. He moved to New York City, where he became a well-knownfolksinger and songwriter inGreenwich Village. He performed mostly during the 1950s and 1960s. Some of his more successful songs have Native American themes, including "As Long as the Grass Shall Grow", which takes its name from the title of one of his father's books. It was about theSeneca people.
La Farge married a second time to Consuelo Otile Baca, with whom he had a son, John Pendaries "Pen" La Farge. La Farge's non-fiction bookBehind the Mountains (1956) is based on his memories of Consuelo's family, theBaca family of New Mexico, who were ranchers in northern New Mexico.
La Farge also wrote a regular column forThe New Mexican, a Santa Fe newspaper. Some of his columns were collected and published posthumously asThe Man with the Calabash Pipe (1966).
La Farge died of heart failure in Santa Fe in 1963 at age 61.
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