TOM La FARGE

La FARGE--Tom. 73, died at home on October 22, 2020 after a long struggle with cancer. A former president of the Harvard Lampoon, he took a Ph.D in Renaissance Literature at Princeton and went on publish six novels and a collection of stories while teaching English to a generation of students at the St. Hilda's and Hugh's School and the Horace Mann School. Tom's novel The Crimson Bears/A Hundred Doors was translated into German and published in a series that contained only three other authors: JRR Tolkien, Mervyn Peake and Peter S. Beagle. With his wife, Wendy Walker, he founded the Writhing Society, a salon devoted to exploring diverse writing practices, and Proteotypes, a press associated with the Brooklyn gallery Proteus Gowanus. In the last years of his life he worked tirelessly to save a community garden from deed thieves; the Maple Street Community Garden will soon become a branch of the city parks. Besides Wendy Walker, Tom leaves a son, Paul La Farge. When circumstances permit, a memorial will be held in Brooklyn.