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Oliver La Farge

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Author

The Resume

    (December 19, 1901-August 2, 1963)
    Born in New York City , New York
    Birth name was Oliver Hazard Perry La Farge II
    Author of ‘Laughing Boy’ (1929)
    Other works included ‘Sparks Fly Upward’ (1931), ‘Long Pennant’ (1933), ‘All the Young Men’ (1935), ‘The Enemy Gods (1937),’ The Copper Pot (1942), ‘Raw Material’ (1945) and ‘A Pause in the Desert’ (1957)

Why he might be annoying:

    He was married three times.
    He looked like David Petraeus.
    His best known works all deal with Native American subjects – despite his not being Indigenous himself.
    ’Laughing Boy’ won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction – beating out ‘Farewell to Arms’ (Hemingway), ‘The Sound and the Fury’ (Faulkner) and ‘Look Homeward, Angel’ (Wolfe), all of which have gone on to become classics in their own right - and easily better known than the actual winning book.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He was named after the War of 1812 naval hero.
    He explored early Olmec sites in Mexico, and later studied additional sites in Central America and the American Southwest.
    He left a promising academic career to advocate for Indigenous peoples full-time.
    He was president of the National Association on Indian Affairs (1933–37) and president of the Association on American Indian Affairs (1937–42, 1946–63).
    While he wasn’t Native American, he was close with the Navajo people, having learnt their language, and was nicknamed 'Anast-harzi Nez' (or ‘Tall Cliff-Dweller’) by the tribe.
    His fiction broke the stereotype of the ‘noble Indian savage’ by instead writing about complex individuals struggling to choose between their own culture and assimilation.

Credit: Eddie Burphy & BoyWiththeGreenHair


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Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 4 Votes: 25.00% Annoying