Vardis Fisher

Joseph M. Flora (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)

Ed. by Emory Elliott, University of California, Riverside
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 31 Mar 1895
Died 9 Jul 1968
Activity 1915-1968

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Activities

Primary

Novelist
Poet
Story-writer
Teacher/ Professor

Resources

Fisher's Works

Save to Bookshelf

During the 1930s, Vardis Fisher experienced substantial national reputation, culminating in 1939, when he won the Harper Prize in Fiction for the historical novel

Children of God

, a recounting of the origins of the Mormon faith. The novel follows the careers of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young and the establishment of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints; it ends with the church's repudiation of polygamy. Although the novel was widely acclaimed for its objectivity, the Saints did not, by and large, share the enthusiasm.

Earlier in the decade, Fisher had made his first big mark on the national scene with a searing autobiographical tetralogy. In Tragic Life (1932) portrays the struggles and isolation of Vridar Hunter in a remote Idaho outpost near the Snake River. Passions Spin the

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

1970 words

Citation: Flora, Joseph M.. "Vardis Fisher". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 September 2002 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1541, accessed 23 November 2024.]