Join Proal Heartwell and Bahlmann Abbot as they discuss the writing of Oliver La Farge and the music of his son, Peter. Proal will read selections from In Beauty It Is Finished, and Bahlmann will play music that illuminates this work. This in-person event will be free and open to the public. We recommend arriving early for the best seating.
In Beauty It Is Finished: Reflections on the Life and Work of Oliver La Farge is a hybrid biography of the American author best known for his novel Laughing Boy, winner of the 1930 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction. La Farge’s canon of twenty-four books is equally divided between fiction and nonfiction, and most of his work examines Native American life and culture. A member of a prominent American family, La Farge was also the father of singer/songwriter Peter La Farge, whose “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” was recorded by Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, and Kris Kristofferson, among others.
Proal Heartwell lives in Charlottesville, Virginia, where he teaches English at Village School, a middle school for girls that he cofounded in 1995. He is the author of two literary biographies, Goronwy and Me: A Narrative of Two Lives and most recently, In Beauty It Is Finished: Reflections on the Life and Work of Oliver La Farge. Proal has also written two novels, Divided We Fall and A Game of Catch, and he is the editor of the anthologies A Little Off the Top: Stories of Haircuts, Barbers, and Barber Shops and One for the Road: An Anthology of Road Trip Writing.
A native of southern West Virginia, Bahlmann Abbot has been a practicing architect and musician in the Charlottesville area since the late 70’s. He has produced two CDs, Falling in Place and Chasing Storms. He is also a contributing writer to Mr. Heartwell’s A Little Off the Top and One for the Road. Bahlmann will be playing some of the music of Peter La Farge, along with a few originals.
To order In Beauty It Is Finished, please see below for the New Dominion Bookshop book order form or call the shop at 434-295-2552.
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