Fisher, Vardis, 1895-1968

Resident of Hagerman, Idaho; novelist and director of Idaho Writers' Project for the Works Progress Administration.

From the description of Collection, 1927-1972. (University of Idaho Library). WorldCat record id: 42927292

American teacher, poet, novelist; taught at University of Utah and New York University.

From the description of Letter to Robert Newton Linscott [manuscript], 1930 November 5. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647812269

American writer.

From the description of Papers of Vardis Fisher [manuscript], 1928-1941. (University of Virginia). WorldCat record id: 647805099

Vardis Fisher was born 31 March 1895 in Annis, Idaho. After receiving his doctorate degree in English from the University of Chicago, he taught at the University of Utah and New York University. He returned to Idaho to become a full-time writer in 1931. During the Great Depression, he directed the Federal Writers' Project in Idaho. He wrote or edited thirty-six books, dozens of essays and stories, and several hundred opinion columns for various Idaho newspapers. From 1943 to 1960 he completed his "Testament of Man" series. His 1928 novel "Toilers of the Hill" earned him literary acclaim. "Children of God," his 1939 novel on the origins of Mormonism, won the Harper Prize for fiction. He won several other literary awards. His novel "Mountain Man" was the basis of the 1972 Sydney Pollack film, Jeremiah Johnson, starring Robert Redford. Fisher passed away 8 July 1968 in Jerome, Idaho.

From the description of Vardis Fisher papers, 1938-1960. (Utah State University). WorldCat record id: 721447782

Author, Hagerman, Idaho.

From the description of Papers, 1922-1970. (Washington State University). WorldCat record id: 29852606

American author.

From the description of Vardis Fisher plays, ca. 1960. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 145435894

From the guide to the Vardis Fisher plays, 1960, (L. Tom Perry Special Collections)

Author.

From the description of Vardis and Opal Fisher papers, 1934-1996. (Boise State University). WorldCat record id: 612307081

Born in Annis, Idaho, March 31, 1895, Vardis Fisher was the son of Joseph and Temperance (Thornton) Fisher. He received his early education from his mother until he was ready for grade 5 or 6 and began attending Poplar elementary school. He attended the high school in Rigby, Idaho where he graduated in 1915. He received his A.B. from the University of Utah in 1920, then attended the University of Chicago where he received his M.A. in 1922 and his Ph.D in 1925.

He married his first wife, a childhood sweetheart Leona McMurtrey, on September 10, 1917. They had two children before she died in 1924. In 1928 he married Margaret Trusler with whom he had one child; they were divorced in 1939. In 1940 he married Opal Laurel Holmes, and lived with her in Hagerman, Idaho, until his death on July 9, 1968.

Following his graduation from the University of Chicago he taught English at University of Utah for several years, then at New York University where he became friendly with Thomas Wolfe. In 1931 he moved back to his father's ranch in Idaho in order to continue writing, and when in 1935 he was named director of the WPA writer's project in Idaho he moved to Boise.

Following his marriage to Opal Holmes in 1940 he built a home near Hagerman, Idaho, where he wrote his monumental Testament of Man series. He wrote novels, historical works, essays, and newspaper columns and was considered Idaho's most prominent and prolific author.

From the guide to the Papers, 1927-1974, (University of Idaho Library Special Collections and Archives)

Vardis Alvero Fisher

Vardis Alvero Fisher was born March 31, 1895, at Annis, Idaho, of Mormon parents. He received an A.B. degree in English at the University of Utah (1920). He followed this up with graduate work at the University of Chicago where he received an M.A. (1922) and Ph.D. (1925). He subsequently taught at the University of Utah, New York University, and the University of Montana. In 1928 his first novel was published, a forerunner of a long and productive writing career. By 1935 he had retired from teaching to continue his writing. Within a few years, as an impoverished author, he eagerly accepted the position as director of the Idaho Guide project, a part of the depression-based Works Progress Administration. Fisher's directorship produced the first state guide published. It was written almost entirely by Fisher as none of his relief workers were writers. Following his experiences with government relief projects Fisher returned to his own writing, moving to a ranch near Hagerman, Idaho. His writings include a twelve volume series The Testament of Man, the four volume Vridar Hunter tetrology, and a score of other works. He died at his home near Hagerman July 9, 1968, and was survived by his wife Opal.

Inez Puckett McEwen

Among Fisher's correspondents and acquaintances was another Idaho author and journalist, Inez Puckett McEwen. She was born in 1904 in Iowa though raised in the west. At the time of her correspondence with Fisher she was living on a ranch near Kimberly, Idaho, the scene o£ the autobiographical So This is Ranching (1948). She is now living and writing in California.

Ronald Warren Taber

Born in 1942, Ron Taber was a graduate student in the American Studies Program at Washington State University when he first approached Vardis Fisher in 1965 with the idea of basing his dissertation on Fisher's historical novels. Eventually changing his topic to a study of the Federal Writer's Project, Taber continued his contact with Fisher through correspondence and interviews, especially regarding Fisher's role in the project. The title of his dissertation, presented in 1969, was: The Federal Writer's Project in the Pacific Northwest: a case study . In addition Taber wrote Vardis Fisher and the Idaho Guide: Preserving Culture for the New Deal, which appeared in Pacific Northwest Quarterly, v. 59 (April 1968). While these studies were based in part on the material in the present collection, additional material was compiled by Taber in contemplation of a full-length biography of Fisher.

From the guide to the Vardis Fisher Papers, 1922-1970, (Washington State University Libraries Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections)

Vardis Fisher, novelist, essayist, and short story writer, was born on March 31, 1895, in Annis, Idaho. He was raised in the Antelope Hills of eastern Idaho, graduated from Rigby High School, and received a bachelor's degree from the University of Utah in 1920. He received a master's and doctorate from the University of Chicago. After teaching at the University of Utah and New York University, he returned to Idaho in 1931 to devote full time to writing. During the Depression Fisher served as the director of the Federal Writers Project in Idaho. Under his editorship, the project produced the acclaimed Idaho guide and other works. In 1940 Fisher married Opal Laurel Holmes, his third wife. They built a home in the Hagerman valley of southern Idaho and lived there until Vardis Fisher's death in 1968. A fuller biographical sketch of Vardis Fisher can be found in the finding aid to the Library's Clore collection (MSS 2).

Opal Fisher was born in Laurens, Iowa, on October l4, 1913. Raised by her grandparents, she met Vardis Fisher in 1936 when she went to work for the Federal Writers Project in Boise. After Fisher's death in 1968 she moved back to Boise to devote her life to protecting Fisher's literary reputation and reprinting his novels under her own imprint, Opal Laurel Holmes (her maiden name). Vivacious and strong-willed, Mrs. Fisher was not loath to castigate publicly scholars whose interpretation of Fisher's life and work did not coincide with her own. Nor did she shrink from doing battle with publishers in her efforts to recover publication rights to her husband's works. In December 1972 she presided over the Boise premiere of the motion picture Jeremiah Johnson, a movie based in part on Fisher's novel Mountain Man . The premiere was attended by both director Sydney Pollack and its star, Robert Redford. Between 1972 and 1977, Mrs. Fisher reprinted several of Fisher's books but did not have much success in distributing them. Tim Woodward, author of a biography of Vardis Fisher, interviewed her several times in 1985, but she was little heard from publicly after that. Opal Fisher lived the last years of her life as a recluse in her home in the Boise Foothills. She died at home in 1994, surrounded by thousands of copies of Vardis Fisher's books.

From the guide to the Vardis and Opal Fisher Papers, 1934-1996, (Boise State University Library)

Dr. George E. Brown, Jr., of Twin Falls, Idaho, was both friend and physician to Vardis Fisher. Born in Miles City, Montana, on March 24, 1913, he received both his undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Michigan. Brown was Vardis Fisher's physician in the early 1950s, until he left Idaho to accept an appointment as assistant professor of medicine at the University of Cincinnati, a position he held from 1957 until 1960. When he returned to Idaho, he and Vardis Fisher resumed their medical and social relationship, which lasted until Fisher's death in 1968.

Dr. Brown died in Boise, Idaho, on March 23, 2004.

Source: Biographical information on George E. Brown, Jr., was derived from Biographical Directory of the American College of Physicians (Bowker, 1979).

From the guide to the George E. Brown, Jr. Correspondence with Vardis Fisher, 1954-1968, (Boise State University Library)

Vardis Fisher was born March 31, 1895 in Annis, Idaho to Joseph Oliver and Temperance (Thornton) Fisher. He was educated at the University of Utah (A.B., 1920) and the University of Chicago (A.M., 1922 and Ph.D., 1925).

After graduating from the University of Chicago, Fisher taught for several years as an assistant professor of English at the University of Utah (1925-1928) and New York University (1928-1931) before returning to Idaho, where he served as director of the Federal Writers Project for the state of Idaho (1935-1939) and as an editor and contributor to various periodicals from the late 1930s until his death in 1968.

Fisher won a number of awards for his literary and non-fiction work, including the Harper Prize in 1939 for Children of God, the Wrangler Award for best Western historical novel in 1965 for Mountain Man, and the Spur Award in 1966 and 1969. Fisher's novel Mountain Man was made into a popular film ( Jeremiah Johnson ), starring Robert Redford, by Sydney Pollack in 1972.

Fisher married three times: to Leona McMurtrey, 1918; Margaret Trusler, 1928; and Opal Laurel Holmes, 1940.

Biographical information taken from "Vardis (Alvero) Fisher." Contemporary Authors Online . Detroit: Gale, 2003. Gale Biography In Context . Web. 7 Mar. 2012.

From the guide to the Vardis Fisher papers, 1870-1984, (Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library)

Vardis Fisher was born March 31, 1895 in Annis, Idaho. After graduating from Rigby High School and receiving a bachelor's degree form the University of Utah, he attended the University of Chicago, where he received master’s and doctorate degrees in English. Following teaching at the University of Utah and New York University, Fisher returned to Idaho in 1931 to devote himself full-time to writing. During the Depression he directed the Federal Writers’ Project in Idaho. While directing this project, Fisher met and married his third wife, Opal Laurel Holmes, who would become his chief promoter after his death. From 1943 to 1960, Fisher completed his “Testament of Man” series. He passed away July 8, 1968 in Jerome, Idaho.

Fisher’s 1928 novel Toilers of the Hill placed him in the ranks of significant American writers. His most critically acclaimed works focused on the Rocky Mountain region of the West. He wrote prolifically, authoring or editing thirty-six books, including several historical novels and works of non-fiction, dozens of essays and stories, and several hundred weekly opinion columns for various Idaho newspapers. Children of God, his 1939 historical novel on the origins of Mormonism, won the Harper Prize for fiction. Fisher won the first ever Distinguished Achievement Award in 1965 from the Western Literature Association. In 1966 Fisher won the Wrangler Trophy for outstanding Western novelist with his work, Mountain Man. This novel was the basis of the 1972 Sydney Pollack film, Jeremiah Johnson, starring Robert Redford.

Sources: The Deseret News, 11 July 1968, Obituaries. Flora, Joseph M. Rediscovering Vardis Fisher Centennial Essays. Moscow, ID: University of Idaho Press, 2000.

From the guide to the Vardis Fisher Papers, 1938-1930, (Utah State University. Special Collections and Archives)

Vardis Fisher (1895-1968), was born in a log cabin without running water, electricity, or heat, in Annis Idaho. He and his brother Vivian, were educated at home until the fourth grade, at which time they entered public school in Idaho. After graduating from the University of Utah in 1920, Vardis Fisher acquired a Master of Arts degree (1922) and a Ph.D. (1925) at the University of Chicago. He then returned to Utah, to teach English at the University of Utah (1925-1928), and then to New York University. He also taught as a summer professor at Montana State University (1932-1933), and directed the Idaho Writer's Project for the WPA (1935-1939). Vardis Fisher was married three times, to Leona McMurtrey, from 1917 to 1924, with whom he had two children before she commited suicide. His next marriage, to Margaret Trusler, was from 1928 to 1939, and produced one child. Finally, in 1940 he married Opal Laurel Holmes, which lasted for twenty-eight years until his own suicide in 1965.

A prolific writer, Vardis Fisher wrote thirty-eight books, ranging from western naturalism, to prodigious works on the nature of man and religion. He is most famous for his 1965 work Mountain Man, A Novel of Male and Female in the American West, which was an inspiration for the Sydney Pollack film, Jeremiah Johnson . His other western fiction includes The Mothers, 1943; Pemmican : a novel of the Hudson's Bay Company, 1956; Tale of Valor; a Novel of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1958. He wrote the semi-autobiographical series, cumulatively called the Vridar Hunter tetrology. Individually, these books were titled In Tragic Life, 1932; Passions Spin the Plot, 1934; We Are Betrayed, 1935; and No Villain Need Be, 1936.

Two of his most ambitious works concern Vardis Fisher's study of the Christian ethic, and Mormonism in particular. The son of an L.D.S. bishop, Fisher was an avowed atheist, and the study of the roots of Christianity and its effect on humankind were of enormous interest to him. He won the Harper Prize in 1939 for his study of Brigham Young and the Mormons in Children of God, but his opus might be considered "The Testament of Man" Series, in which he attempts to explore the entire history of mankind, with particular attention to religion. These books include Darkness and the Deep, 1943; The Golden Rooms, 1944; Intimations of Eve, 1946; Adam and the Serpent, 1947; The Divine Passion, 1948; The Valley of Vision, 1951; The Island of the Innocent, 1952; A Goat for Azazel, 1956; Jesus Came Again: A Parable, 1956; Peace Like a River: A Novel of Christian Asceticism, 1957; My Holy Satan, A Novel of Christian Twilight, 1958 and Orphans in Gethsemane, 1960.

From the guide to the Vardis Fisher papers, undated, (J. Willard Marriott Library, University of Utah)