Oliver La Farge

An autobiographical testament of Jörg Fauser's self-deprecating, brutally honest, and oddly charming alter ego, Harry Gelb. Through Gelb, Fauser casts an eye over the times he lived as a junkie in Istanbul, in a commune in Berlin, and in a squat in Frankfurt, while working on an underground magazine, and trying ceaselessly to get a novel published.

Oliver La Farge covers may aspects of life in these sixteen stories, which range from an old man facing death, alone in the Mexican bush, in "Old Century's River," to some boys facing the responsibilities of life at St. Peter's school in "By the Boys Themselves"; from the science fiction of the great computing machines , in "John the Revelator," to the world of gourmets in "La Spécialité de M. Duclos"; from the violent death of a man off the Rhode Island coast, in "Thick on the Bay," to the quiet death of a marriage in New Mexico, in "A Pause in the Desert." The reader can be sure of finding in this variety the story to fit his taste and mood and sure too of finding in each the craftsmanship that marks all Mr. La Farge's work--what the New York Tribune called "the clean grace of his writing." This is a book to own, to enjoy, to lend to those friends who can be trusted to return it, and to give to those who cannot -- Book jacket.

The absorbing and amazingly interesting story of the Indians of North America from the time the first white men landed to the present. Oliver La Farge, the foremost authority on the American Indian, traces the spread of the civilizations of Mexico and South America northward, correcting many misconceptions and reconstructing in great detail the life of the Indians in every section of North America. All the great events, major developments and notable chiefs and heroes of Indian history are covered. The wars among the tribes, their leagues, their fighting and alliances with the British, the French, the Spanish and the American settlers are recounted dramatically, as is the tribes’ resistance to the pioneers as they moved westward to Kentucky, to the Mississippi, across the wide-open spaces of the plains to the Far West. All the many tribes are described, from the Choctaws, Creeks, Chickasaws, Seminoles and Natchez of the Southeast, and the Cherokees, Iroquois (Mohawks, Senecas, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas and Tuscaroosas), Hurons and Eries of the Northeast to the tribes of the West: Pawnees, Osages, Kickapoos, Pueblos, Blackfeet, Navahos and other Apaches, Cheyennes, Comanches, Sioux, Utes, Shoshones, and the Raven people of the Northwest. The customs, ways of life, religions, superstitions, culture and social organization of the Indians are all thoroughly examined: the place of women in tribal councils, war activities, agriculture, hunting, dances, sports, inter-marriage with whites, clothing, wampum, arts, crafts, dwelling places - there is no aspect of Indian life left uncovered. As the white men advanced and Indians were pushed westward new cultural influences occurred: in the prairie, horses were introduced, hunting took precedence over agriculture, and subsequently new pressures were introduced with the gold rush to the West Coast. Finally we see the Indians as they are today - their reservations and the policy towards them, education, medical service, self-government, industries and promise for the future. Great care, attention and emphasis was given to the several hundred illustrations illuminating Mr. La Farge’s superb text. These include color plates and many previously unpublished items. All the pictures are authentic. They were selected after an examination of some 5,000 drawings, paintings, photographs, engravings and manuscript illuminations in public and private collections all over the country, including the files of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, The Smithsonian Institution, the Library of Congress, and of institutes, museums, railroad and industrial collections and numerous private sources. BOOK JACKET.

With the powerful simplicity that characterizes the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Laughing Boy, Oliver La Farge depicts the colorful and true accounts of the enchanting life of his wife Consuelo Baca and her family on a sprawling sheep ranch in the 1920's. Set in a valley nestled in the mountains of Northern New Mexico, Behind the Mountains is full of lively and poignant anecdotes about the Baca household, the village people, and a New-world Spanish style of life that was ended by the Depression and the encroachment of the outside world.

Describes the summer the mother ditch went dry, a time of crisis for the Romero family, who grow fruits and vegetables by irrigation in the dry Cerrito region of New Mexico.

Adopted half-breed son a of a high-caste Spaniard becomes the darling of the aristocrats, but returns and leads the Indians in a victorious revolt.

The story of the romance between a Navajo boy and girl.

In the Middle Ages a young boy crippled by the plague has an adventurous journey from London to the castle where he becomes a page. Directions for stage settings and a list of props are included. There are parts for eighteen men and eight women.

The Stories Chosen for This Year's Anthology