By Harvey Mudd
There Was a Peacock
Art History
Juan Ezekiel Fontana (1930-2018) was a Mexican journalist who covered some of the twentieth century’s most tragic events, notably the French-Algerian War and the Troubles in Northern Ireland. He produced, along the way, many hundreds of small drawings in sketchbooks of varied sizes.
In 2017, the American memoirist and poet, Harvey Mudd, was invited to help Fontana curate his drawings for the purpose only of creating an album for Fontana’s daughter. This volume contains Mudd’s journal describing his work with Fontana. Mudd came away convinced that the drawings were more than just evidence of Fontana’s eccentricity.
Author
Harvey Mudd
Harvey Mudd is an American poet, writer, and painter who, disillusioned with American politics and culture, lives in France.
His memoir, Leaving My Self Behind, recounts the events and influences—from a prestigious family with ancestry that goes back to the first generation of American settlers in 1630 to the modern day—that formed the values and historical reference that led to his self-imposed exile.
It is also an experiment in “lean” autobiography, a “life” stripped of the romantic entanglements, but which includes an examination of a severely dysfunctional birth family and the resulting personal trials that shaped his character.
Other Books by Harvey Mudd
Leaving My Self Behind
Leaving My Self Behind recounts the childhood of the scion of a distinguished Los Angeles family under the shadow of an abusive mother with unconscious agendas.
Spinoza’s Dog
A third of this collection represents the poetic sensibility of Harvey Mudd’s previous books of poetry with the rest written in the last ten years that he has lived in France.
A European Education
This a book-length poem is based on diaries author and poet Harvey Mudd kept during a six-month exploration of the places of the Holocaust in the winter of 1979-80.
The Plain of Smokes
The Plain of Smokes is a book-length poem about the city of Los Angeles similar to Hart Crane’s The Bridge. Includes drawings by California artist and ceramist, Ken Price.