Aileen Fisher

Aileen Fisher was born in Iron River, Michigan on September 9th, 1906. She attended the University of Chicago for two years before transferring to the University of Missouri School of Journalism. She graduated in 1927, and the same year, her first verse was published in Child Life . Upon graduation she worked in Chicago at a placement bureau for women journalists. Her first book, The Coffee Pot Face, was published in 1933. In 1937 she moved to a ranch outside of Boulder, Colorado, where she lived without electricity in a cabin that she designed and built herself. She later moved into Boulder, residing in a house at the base of Flagstaff Mountain.

A prolific author of children's literature, Fisher published over 100 books during her lifetime, the majority of which were books of verse. She received the 1978 National Council of Teachers of English Excellence in Poetry for Children Award. One of her most frequent themes was nature, and she credited the experience living in Colorado right by the mountains, as the inspiration for much of her work. She passed away in Boulder on December 2, 2002.

From the guide to the Aileen Fisher Papers, 1946-1980, 1963-1980, (University of Colorado at Boulder Libraries. Special Collections Dept.)