Clore, Mabel S.

Vardis Fisher was born on March 31, 1895, in Annis, Idaho, to a family of Mormon pioneers. He was the first child of a man who preferred the wilderness and a woman who desired civilization. In 1901 Fisher's family moved to a remote river basin home in Southeastern Idaho. The Antelope Hills were totally isolated, and for the next five years (until he was sent to school) Fisher was 'imprisoned by the wilderness" (according to biographer Wayne Chatterton). After graduating from Rigby High School in 1915, Fisher attended the University of Utah, where he married his childhood sweetheart, Leona McMurtrey. At the outset of World War I, Fisher enlisted as an officer candidate in the Air Force, resigned, and was then drafted, serving two years in the Army. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Utah in 1920. With his wife and two sons, he moved to Illinois to pursue graduate work in English Literature at the University of Chicago.

Fisher's writing skills were highly acclaimed by both universities. He received his masters degree in 1922 with a thesis on Daniel Defoe and London low life. His academic accomplishments, however, were overshadowed during this period by the suicide of his wife in 1924. Fisher completed his PhD, magna cum laude, in 1925 and returned with his sons to Salt Lake City, Utah, to assume a teaching career at the University of Utah. Stifled by religious and academic pressures for conventionality and conformity, Fisher resigned in 1928. In search of intellectual freedom, he accepted a position as assistant professor at New York University.

Prior to leaving Utah, he wrote Sonnets to an Imaginary Madonna (1927), a reflection of his first marriage. While in New York, he married Margaret Trusler, a fellow student from the University of Chicago, the same year that his first novel, Toilers of the Hills, was published (1928). During his years in New York City, he developed a close friendship with fellow teacher and author Thomas Wolfe that would eventually be documented in Fisher's essay "Thomas Wolfe As I Knew Him' (1963).

Fisher made a commitment to a writing career and returned to Idaho to live in 1931. His second novel, Dark Bridwell, was published that same year. His next novels have been referred to as the "Vridar Hunter" tetralogy: In Tragic Life (1932), Passions Spin the Plot (1934), We Are Betrayed (1935), and No Villain Need Be (1936). The titles of these works were taken from a sonnet by George Meredith, the English poet, who influenced Fisher's writings and was the subject of his doctoral dissertation at Chicago. The tetralogy, considered by critics as being autobiographical, reflects his memories of the rigid, hard childhood he experienced in the Antelope Hills. Ironically, during this same period Fisher chose to homestead in the remote river bottom country of the Snake River's Hagerman Valley. During the Depression, Fisher accepted the position as the Idaho Director of the WPA writers Project (1935-1939). Under his editorship, the project produced the Idaho guide (1937), The Idaho Encyclopedia (1938), and Idaho Lore (1939).

After the publication of April: A Fable of Love (1937) and Forgive Us Our Virtues: A Comedy of Evasions (1938), Fisher wrote his most famous novel, Children of God, which won the Harper Prize for fiction in 1939. The book is a three-part novel concerning the early history of the Mormon church. Fisher attempted to portray the church impartially even though he had rejected its teachings in his late teens. Following this success, he wrote five other historical novels: City of Illusion (1941), 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), and Mountain Man (1965).

Fisher and his second wife were divorced in 1939 and the following year he married Opal Laurel Holmes. In 1940, he began to write a series of novels exploring "the evolution of man's soul from beginning to the present day" (Contemporary Authors). The twelve volumes of the Testament of Man series (1943-1960) were philosophical and psychological rather than strictly historical in nature.

Fisher's non-fictional writings include regional works: The Caxton Printers in Idaho (1944) and Gold Rushes and Mining Camps of the Early American West (1968), which he co-authored with his wife, Opal. He wrote Suicide or Murder? (1962), a biography of Meriwether Lewis, and God or Caesar (1953) containing advice for the beginning writer, as well as numerous essays and articles. The 1930s and early 1940s were Fisher's most prolific years for short stories and periodical articles, though he continued to write occasional articles through the 1960s. These shorter works appeared in such diverse journals as Esquire, Coronet, Rocky Mountain Review, and Western Folklore.

After being away from teaching for three decades Fisher was selected as the author in residence at the College of Idaho in 1968. Fisher died at the age of 73 on July 9, 1968, leaving two works in progress, his autobiography and a volume to be called The Western United States, The World's Greatest Physical Wonderland. In 1972 his novel Mountain Man was made into the motion picture Jeremiah Johnson. Directed by Sydney Pollock and starring Robert Redford, it was chosen to represent the United States at the 1972 Cannes Film Festival.

Joseph M. Flora wrote prior to Fisher's death, "He writes in the morning and does hard labor on the farm in the afternoons .... His inspiration comes from the scholarly books with which he surrounds himself and the wilds of the nature around him. The Idaho terrain and Rocky Mountains have nourished Fisher's art from the first to last."

Sources:

Chatterton, Wayne. Vardis Fisher : The Frontier and Regional Works. Boise, Idaho : Boise State College, 1972. (Western Writers Series, number 1)

Contemporary Authors. Detroit, Mich.: Gale Research, 1969. v. 5-8. p. 383-385.

Flora, Joseph. Vardis Fisher. New York : Twayne, 1965. (Twayne's United States Authors Series, number 76)

From the guide to the Mabel Clore Collection on Vardis Fisher, 1927-1972, (Boise State University Library)