Vardis fisher biography of donald

  • Leonard Arrington and Davis Bitton identify Vardis Fisher as “perhaps the most important writer of Mormon background” in the history of American letters.
  • PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION (1969).
  • This is the first complete biography of one of the greatest pioneers of Western literature.

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    In their 1979 book, The Mormon Experience, Leonard Arrington and Davis Bitton identify Vardis Fisher as “perhaps the most important writer of Mormon background” in the history of American letters. “The next generation,” they suggest, “will be in a better position to evaluate him.”[i]

    The next generation has now spoken, and it is not good news for Fisher’s legacy. In 1979, he had a small chance of ending up one of those writers that people call “important.” He was still studied occasionally in graduate seminars, and a handful of Ph.D. students had, within the decade, written dissertations about him. Though he had long been eclipsed by Faulkner, Hemingway, and Steinbeck, there was still some chance that he might end up somewhere in the vicinity of, say, Robert Penn Warren or Nelson Algren.

    But it didn’t happen. Fisher’s books became more and more obscure, and the books that he was most famous for (Mountain Man, City of Illusion) were not the books that once formed the basis

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    Archives West Finding Aid

    Letters written bygd Temperance Fisher (mother of Vardis Fisher)Return to Top

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    11

    To Vardis Fisher from Antelope, Idaho

    		1915 (?) månad 8
    12

    To Irene Fisher from Idaho Falls, Idaho

    		1919 April 27

    Letters and other papers written by Vardis FisherReturn to Top

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    13
    14

    To his parents from Salt Lake City, Utah

    		1915 September 20
    15

    To his parents from Salt Lake City, Utah

    		1915 October 1
    16

    To his parents from krydda Lake City, Utah

    		1915 October 15
    17

    To his parents from Salt Lake City, Utah

    		1916 January 21
    18
    To his parents from Salt Lake City, Utah

    Main body of letter by Vivian Fisher; note bygd Vardis Fisher appended

    		1916 September 29
    19

    To "Folkes" [from Chicago, Illinois]

    		1921 November 20
    110

    To "Everybody" from Chicago, Illinois

    		1921 December 4
    111

    To "Everybody" from Chicago, Illinois

    		1922 January 15
    112

    T

  • vardis fisher biography of donald

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    Why an acclaimed author from eastern Idaho is ‘all but forgotten’ 54 years after his death

    RIGBY – Empty whiskey bottles were found next to Vardis Fisher’s body as he lay dead inside his secluded home in Hagerman.

    It was July 9, 1968 and the 73-year-old man, who grew up in a rural community outside of Rigby and wrote 36 books, died from “an overdose of sleeping pills mixed with alcohol,” according to one report.

    Though his death was ruled a suicide, many have wondered over the years whether it was accidental or premeditated. No official ruling was made either way, but those who knew Fisher said he’d contemplated suicide before.

    “He’d had a lot of reasons to kill han själv during his life, but didn’t,” a family member is credited as saying. “After all he’d been through, it wouldn’t have made sense for him just to have calmly decided to end it all.”

    Tim Woodward, who wrote a book about Fisher