Vardis Fisher

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Vardis Alvero Fisher (March 31, 1895 – July 9, 1968) was an American writer best known for his popular Old West historical novels.

Fisher taught English at the University of Utah and Chicago, then in 1931, before arriving at the Washington Square College of New York University.

He worked on the Federal Writer's Project to write The Idaho Handbook, which was first published in 1937.

Fisher wrote Children of God, a historical book that focuses on the early Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, published in 1939.

The Harper Prize was awarded to the author of a book.

Fisher moved from Hagerman, Idaho, in 1940, and spent the next 20 years writing the Testament of Man (1943-1960), depicting human history from caveman to civilization.

In the film Jeremiah Johnson (1972), Fisher's novel Mountain Man (1965) was based on the film Jeremiah Johnson (1972). In Mormon fiction, Fisher is often associated with dissatisfied Mormon writers.

Fisher, according to Leonard Arrington and his graduate student John Haupt, was sympathetic to Mormonism, an assertion that Fisher's widow, Opal Laurel Holmes, had strongly condemned.

Fisher's writing was influenced by inherited "scars" of his family's and Mormon upbringing, and his inclusion of the theme of a religious unbeliever in several of his books.

Early life and education

Fisher was born in Annis, Idaho, near the present-day Rigby. In 1905, his family moved to a strange house. In the firsthand, the fish were raised, including bull castration, de-horning cattle, and butchering was seen. In the Rigby library, he read many books. Fisher was raised by "strict Mormon parents," according to Louie Attebery, a professor at the College of Idaho, but Mormon literature scholar Michael Austin claims that Mormonism denied any contact with a Mormon family. Fisher was not officially accepted into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints until he was 20 years old, and he left the faith for good shortly thereafter, although his mother, sister, and children remained Mormon. "But Mormonism was the faith he didn't believe in," Austin says.

When attending school in Annis, Vardis and his brother Vivian lived with their aunt for one year. Vardis and Vivian, ten and ten year olds, were accepted into a school in Poplar, Idaho, where they lived on their own for half of the school year. They attended high school in Rigby, and they were housed in a hut built by their father. They survived off of fish and other animals. One of Fisher's classmates likened them to old-fashioned clothes and being social outcasts. Fisher graduated from Rigby High School in 1915 and began studies at the University of Utah in the same year. Leona McMurtrey was born in 1917 and spent most of his free time reading and reading. "Whose Mother?" he wrote his first short story. In December 1916, the University Pen, a student literary journal, was published in the University of Utah. Between 1916 and 1923, he published several more works in the magazine. Fisher enrolled in the Air Force in 1918 and attended cadet school in Berkeley, California. When he found out he would be a non-commissioned officer, he lost hope and resigned in early summer, returning to Idaho Falls. Fisher's mother had been told by her doctor to move from Fisher Bottom to a place with a cooler climate, so she moved to Idaho Falls. Joe Fisher, Fisher's brother, started an auto mechanic's school in Portland, Oregon, and he and his sister opened an auto repair shop in Idaho Falls. Fisher, father and uncle, worked in their auto repair shop and stayed there until Leona and her parents moved to Antelope when their baby was born.

Vivian Fisher, the Fisher's brother, was drafted into the army, and Fisher followed him. The war ended before they were sent abroad. Fisher's military service, as well as his earlier air force training, was less than four months old. He wrote several plays in his last year at the University of Utah, in 1920. One of his teachers believed the performances were promising and offered him a teaching job. Fisher spent the summer at the University of Chicago in order to prepare for teaching at the University of Utah. He found the University of Chicago immensely stimulating, claiming that the library held "all the lordly wealth of wisdom." He was first anxious and insecure as a teacher in the United States. Fisher "put a can opener on my head and opened up my brains," he inspired a few students, including Wallace Stegner, who wrote that Fisher "put a can opener on my head and opened up my brains." Fisher returned to the University of Chicago in September 1921, this time carrying his wife and child with him. One of his teachers called him a "book binge" and he read so much that he could not comprehend. Leona waited until his eyes were restored and he could afford new eyeglasses. Fisher wrote his thesis on Daniel Defoe in 1922 and earned his MA. He continued to study at the University of Chicago for a doctoral degree, and he wrote his dissertation on George Meredith. In 1925, Fisher received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

Teaching and early writing

Fisher began teaching at the University of Utah in 1925. In 1926, Wallace Stegner learned first English. He was open with students about his lack of religious conviction and disdimony against Mormon theology. He did not have acquaintances among the other faculty members, and even made enemies out of a few of them by openly criticizing them. Because he liked to stare at others, he sometimes wore dark glasses to mask the direction of his gaze. Trusler began teaching at the University of Utah in 1926. At the time, the University of Utah suffered a large Mormon presence from teachers and administrators who were Mormon. Fisher resigned from the University of Utah after taking a job at Washington Square College of New York University, fearing that he would have been expected to resign soon enough. Trusler married Trusler in 1929 after they migrated to New York City for his new appointment. During his stay at Washington Square College of New York University until 1931, he taught English, and he became acquainted with Thomas Wolfe during his stay there.

Fisher began as a regionalist. According to Attebery at the College of Idaho, his knowledge of his area's history, folkways, and dialect made him an inspiring writer. Toilers of the Hills (1928) was a hit, with critics describing it as the first important fiction from the Rocky Mountain area. It was likened to Caldwell, Garland, and Cather. It was based on Fisher's uncle's life. Frederick Manfred named Dark Bridwall (1931) as one of the ten best American literature books ever written. Though it was a commercial disaster, reviewers cautiously praised its "power" and "sheer living interest of humanity." The novel was compared to Thomas Hardy and William Faulkner. He worked at the University of Montana in the summers of 1931-1932 out of economic necessity; he was not asked to return after his second summer teaching there.

Personal life

Fisher married Leona McMurtrey on September 10, 1917, and their son Grant was born the next year. Wayne's son was born in 1921. Fisher didn't spend much time with his new wife during his time in college. Fisher was intensely jealous of any other man who came along with Leona, often demanding more information in letters about people she had met with. Fisher told his mother and Leona in September 1924 that he had fallen in love with fellow graduate student Margaret Trusler and that he wanted to separate from Leona. He said that if he stayed with Leona, it would ruin his writing career and make her happy. Leona died on September 8, just shy of her 8th birthday. Fisher attributed herself for her suicide and wrote several poems about her after she died. She died later in his life, making it his "big tragedy" later. Following Leona's death, their children grew up on their grandparents' ranch.

On October 2, 1928, Fisher married Margaret Trusler. In February 1937, she gave birth to Thornton Fisher. Margaret was often divorced from Fisher, and although Fisher looked religion, she was a Christian. Fisher met Opal Laurel Holmes, a knowledgeable researcher in his WPA project, in July 1936. They were inevitably attracted to one another. In 1939, Fisher divorced Margaret. Fisher married Opal Laurel Holmes on April 16, 1940, and bought property near Hagerman, Idaho, where they built their own house.

Opal Holmes was his co-author on the Gold Rushes and Mining Camps of the Early American West (1968). Opal Fisher died in 1995, leaving $237,000 from her estate to the University of Idaho for the development of a humanities professorship.

Fisher died on July 9, 1968, after overdosing on sleeping pills.

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