Richard Fariña

About

Richard Fariña (1937–1966) was an American novelist, poet, songwriter, and folk musician known for his connection to the counterculture of the 1960s. Born in Brooklyn, New York, to an Irish mother and a Cuban father, he grew up between different cultural influences that would shape his restless, unconventional outlook. He attended Cornell University, where he became friends with fellow student and future novelist Thomas Pynchon, but left before graduating. Fariña later became part of the Greenwich Village folk music scene, performing and recording with his wife, Mimi Baez Fariña, the younger sister of singer Joan Baez. Together, they released two albums in 1965, combining traditional folk influences with original songs and poetic lyrics. His only novel, Been Down So Long It Looks Like Up to Me (1966), drew on his university experiences and captured the rebellious spirit of a generation questioning authority and social conventions. The novel was published just two days before Fariña died in a motorcycle accident in California, aged 29. Though his literary career was brief, his work remains associated with the emergence of American counterculture and the intersection of literature and folk music.