Richard George Fariña ([ˈfariɲa]; March 8, 1937 – April 30, 1966)[1] was an American folksinger, songwriter, poet and novelist.

[6] While at Cornell he published short stories for local literary magazines and for national periodicals, including Transatlantic Review and Mademoiselle.

[7] Fariña became good friends with Thomas Pynchon,[8] David Shetzline, and Peter Yarrow while at Cornell.

Fariña was present when Hester recorded her third album at Columbia studios during September 1961, where a then-little-known Bob Dylan played the harmonica on several tracks.

They debuted their act as "Richard & Mimi Fariña" at the Big Sur Folk Festival in 1964 and signed a contract with Vanguard Records.

[10] They recorded their first album, Celebrations for a Grey Day (released under the name Mimi & Richard Fariña),[11] in 1965, with the help of Bruce Langhorne, who had previously played for Dylan.

In early 1966, Richard and Mimi Fariña appeared as the sole guests on Episode 16 of Pete Seeger's short-lived UHF television program Rainbow Quest.

The protagonist is Gnossos Pappadopoulis, who enjoys dope, paregoric, feta cheese, Red Cap ale and retsina; attacks authority figures with anarchic glee; and lusts after the girl in the green knee-socks while searching for the right karma.

On April 30, 1966, two days after the publication of his novel, Fariña attended a book-signing ceremony at a Carmel Valley Village bookstore, the Thunderbird.