Vardis Fisher

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Vardis Fisher (born March 13, 1895 in Annis , Idaho , † July 9, 1968 in Haggerman , Idaho) was an American writer . He has written novels, essays and short stories. Considered a promising writer in the American West in the 1930s, he is largely unknown today.

Life

Vardis Fisher was the son of a Mormon bishop and a member of a faction within that church. He spent his youth in the Snake River Valley, Idaho, isolated from the rest of the world. He married his childhood friend Leona McMurtrey in 1917 and then studied in Utah (1920, Bachelor) and Chicago (1922, Masters, 1925, Ph.D.). His wife's suicide in 1924 marked a tragic turning point in his life.

After teaching English in Utah (1925–1928) and New York (1928–1931), he returned to Idaho in 1931 to devote himself entirely to writing. In 1928 he married Margaret Trusler, with whom he had a son. The marriage ended in divorce. In 1940 he married Opal Laurel Holmes, with whom he lived in seclusion in the Malad River Valley in Idaho until his death in 1968.

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Vardis Fisher's early creative period includes novels about historical characters or events. Chrildren of God , a novel about Brigham Young and the Mormons, was awarded the Harper Prize in 1939 . "Pemmikan" traces the fur trade in what was later to become Western Canada. Mountain Man was made into a film by Sydney Pollack under the title Jeremiah Johnson with Robert Redford in the lead role. The novels written during this time were received positively by the critics; Vardis Fisher was considered a promising writer.

His later creative period was characterized by the attempt to depict the pivotal points of the history of the Western culture from the Stone Age to the modern age in twelve novels. Vardis Fisher called this endeavor The Testament of Man (German 'Das Erbe der Menschheit'). These novels largely met with rejection, both because of their claim and because of deficiencies in content. Many historical facts that were accepted in Fischer's time seem outdated today.

List of works

Autobiographically influenced novels

  • Toilers of the Hills , 1928 (Life of the Farmer in the Wild West)
  • Dark Bridwell , 1931 (Life in the Wild West)
  • Vridar Hunter Tetralogy (1932, 1934, 1935, 1936): In Tragic Life , Passions Spin the Plot , We Are Betrayed , No Villain Need Be ; Revised in 1960 under the title Orphans in Gethsemane (also in two volumes For Passion, For Heaven and The Great Confession ). (Life in the Wild West)
  • Forgive us our Virtues , 1938

The American West

  • Children of God , 1939 (Mormon History)
  • City of Illusion , 1941 (Nevada mining fever)
  • The Mothers , 1943 (History of the American West, 1850–1855)
  • Pemmican , 1956 (fur trade in western Canada; Hudson's Bay Company)
  • Tale of Valor (Lewis and Clark's Quest for a Land Route to the Pacific)
  • Mountain Man (Individualism in the Wild West) - honored with a Spur Award in 1965
  • Love and Death , 1959

Title

  • Suicide or Murder? The Strange Death of Governor Meriwether Lewis.
  • Gold Rushes and Mining Camps of the Early American West

The Testament of Man

  1. Darkness and the Deep , 1943 ( Neanderthals )
  2. The Golden Rooms , 1944 ( Cro-Magnon-Man )
  3. Intimations of Eve , 1946
  4. Adam and the Serpent , 1947
  5. The Divine Passion , 1948 (time period of biblical Abraham)
  6. The Valley of Vision , 1951 (Biblical Solomon period)
  7. The Island of the Innocent , 1952 (Maccabees Rising)
  8. Jesus Came Again , 1956 ( New Testament Period )
  9. A Goat for Azazel , 1956 (New Testament Period)
  10. Peace Like a River , 1957 (paperback edition The Passion Within ) ( Council of Nicaea )
  11. My Holy Satan , 1958 ( Middle Ages at the time of Francis of Assisi )
  12. Orphans in Gethsemane (Modern; revision of his autobiographical Vridar Hunter tetralogy)

biography

  • Tim Woodward, Tiger in the Road , Caxton Printers.
  • Joseph Flora, Vardis Fisher , Twayne Series.
  • Wayne Chatterton, Vardis Fisher , Boise State Western Writers Series.
  • Joe Flora, Rediscovering Vardis Fisher : Centennial Essays. (A collection of essays on Vardis Fisher)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Fisher, Vardis
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American writer
DATE OF BIRTH March 13, 1895
PLACE OF BIRTH Annis , Idaho
DATE OF DEATH July 9, 1968
Place of death Haggerman , Idaho