John LaFarge - LaFarge's writings include:

Catholic priest and social activist, born in Newport, Rhode Island, USA. A Jesuit who did pastoral work among African-American Catholics in Maryland (1911–26), he devoted much of his later life to promoting racial justice and interracial co-operation through a network of Catholic interracial councils, and as a writer and long-time editor (1926–63) for the Jesuit magazine America.

John LaFarge (March 31, 1835–November 14, 1910) was an American painter, stained glass window maker, decorator, and writer.

Born in New York City, New York, his interest in art was aroused during his training at Mount Saint Mary College and Fordham University. Even his earliest drawings and landscapes, done in Newport, Rhode Island, after his marriage in 1861 to Margaret Mason Perry, sister-in-law of Lilla Cabot Perry, show marked originality, especially in the handling of color values, and also the influence of Japanese art, in the study of which he was a pioneer.

LaFarge's inquiring mind led him to experiment with color problems, especially in the medium of stained glass. He succeeded not only in rivaling the gorgeousness of the medieval windows, but in adding new resources by his invention of opalescent glass and his original methods of superimposing and welding his material. Among his many masterpieces are the "Battle Window" at Harvard and the cloisonné "Peacock Window" in the Worcester Art Museum. Both of these windows were retored by "Victor Rothman for Stained Glass Inc" of Yonkers, New York in the 1990's. Then followed his decorations in the Church of the Ascension (the large altarpiece) and St. Paul's Church, New York.

His labors in almost every field of art won for him from the French Government the Cross of the Legion of Honor and membership in the principal artistic societies of America, as well as the presidency of the Society of Mural Painters.

In 1904, he was one of the first seven chosen for membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters. On his passing in 1910, John LaFarge was interred in the Green-Wood Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

His eldest son, Christopher Grant LaFarge, was a partner in the New York-based architectural firm of Heins & LaFarge, responsible for projects in Beaux-Arts style, notably the original Byzantine Cathedral of St. John the Divine and the original Astor Court buildings of the Bronx Zoo.

Another of his sons, John LaFarge s.j. He wrote several books and articles before the war on this subject, one of which caught the eye of pope Pius XI who summoned him to Rome and asked him to work out a new encyclica (after his "Mit Brennender Sorge" of March 1937) against nazi policies.

LaFarge's writings include:

"The American Art of Glass" (a pamphlet) Considerations on Painting (New York, 1895) An Artist's Letters from Japan (New York, 1897) The Great Masters (New York) Hokusai: a talk about Japanese painting (New York, 1897) The Higher Life in Art (New York, 1908) One Hundred Great Masterpieces The Christian Story in Art Letters from the South Seas (unpublished) Correspondence (unpublished)