Vardis Fisher - (1895-1968)
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10th grader in Advanced English 3
Emmett High School, Emmett, Idaho
I. Introduction—Idaho Relic
Vardis Fisher is a notable author of the great state of Idaho. The nature of his writing style is what makes him unique from many other authors. Despite having many social difficulties during his childhood, Fisher was still able to possess and maintain strong writing abilities as an adult. He did succeed, but only through much tribulation. In fact, life's struggles only fueled Fisher's writing. He utilized his struggles and knowledge of frontier culture to his advantage, employing them in his literary works. Vardis Fisher is, perhaps, one of the most influential and successful Western writers of the twentieth century, demonstrating a strong sense of Western culture and geography while exhibiting a profound knowledge of the struggles and nature of life.
II. Early Life
In order to better understand the way Fisher's experiences have influenced his works, one must first understand his early life. Social difficulties plagued Fisher from the start. Childhood isolation became the chief influence that molded his outlook on the world, apparent to Fisher as one "inhabited by children with only a dim notion of what it is to be adult" (Flora 108). Fisher's works frequently involved characters caught up in self-love and self-pity, the latter being one of Fisher's own weaknesses (108). This quality surely must have come from his earlier years and all of the hardships derived from them.
Born Vardis Alvero Fisher in Annis, Idaho, on March 31, 1895, problems presented themselves unmercifully. Fisher had moved to the secluded Antelope Hills when he was six, and his only neighbors were the malicious Wheatons, several miles away (Flora 108). They bullied him often and once came close to drowning him in the Snake River (109). These circumstances must have contributed to his apprehensive outlook on life.
Fisher's problems only increased. Even Fisher's name was problematic. At age twelve, Fisher was further troubled when he began attending public school. As children sometimes are, the frontier children were quite cruel. Apparently, Fisher's isolation had made his interaction with other children limited, and, thus, handicapped his ability to associate with them. They harassed Vardis Alvero Fisher and his younger brother, Vivian Ezra Fisher, because of their strange names and Vivian's crossed eyes. Fisher had to stand up for himself as well as his younger brother (Flora 108). At this time, Vardis Fisher and his brother were living with an aunt and uncle in order to attend school. At age sixteen, however, they left this situation and began living on their own outside Rigby, Idaho (109). Independence at such an early age must have been considerably trying.
II. Relationships
Relationships also play a key role in the shaping of Fisher's works. Attraction, jealousy, marriage, guilt, love—these are all fundamentally important variables which must be further understood to discuss their association as the foundations for many of Fisher's collections. After all, it is these qualities that seem to be the major factors comprising a considerable portion of his more in-depth novels, including his Testament of Man series, as well as his Vridar Hunter Tetralogy.
Fisher's first attraction was Leona McMurtrey. After graduating from Rigby High School, Fisher wished to pursue writing as well as continue courting Leona. While studying at the University of Utah in 1916, jealousy surfaced in Fisher. The long-distance relationship only produced suspicions between the two when Fisher received reports from Leona's sister that Leona was "too friendly with other men." After Fisher's second year at U of U, he and Leona married (Flora 109). This jealousy formerly presented by Fisher, however, seemed to foreshadow future problems in the marriage.
In 1918 Fisher enlisted in the army to escape his marriage. Their first child was on the way, but Fisher was not as pleased as Leona. By 1922, after receiving his M.A. degree, the relationship between Fisher and his wife was getting even worse. Leona was made to feel inadequate, especially when Fisher fell in love with his future second wife, Margaret Trusler (109), who did contain the intellectual qualities longed for in Leona (Woodward 84-85). Fisher expected Leona to understand his points of view and literary studies, which were way above her level of learning (she was in fact four years younger than he, and, therefore, less knowledgeable, anyway). When Leona did not understand Fisher's studies or comprehend them well enough to carry an intelligent conversation, Fisher became frustrated and criticized her. Leona, on the other hand, wanted a husband who would take her places and introduce her to people—someone who knew how to have fun (Woodward 68). The relationship could not work under these circumstances. Susceptible to such mental strain, Leona committed suicide on September 8, 1924, only to leave Fisher full of extreme guilt (Flora 109).
Marriages, like other social relationships, were obviously not one of Fisher's stable points. After four years of guilt and the remaining of Margaret Trusler by his side, Fisher and Margaret wed in 1928 (Flora 110), only for her to be back out of Fisher's life by 1937. In 1949, Opal Holmes then became Fisher's third wife (Flora 112). Opal was to remain with, and even outlive, Fisher, supporting his later works even until his own suicide on July 9, 1968 (Flora 117).
III. Relationship Influence on Certain Works
These relationships are the cornerstones of many of Fisher's themes. The relationship between Fisher and his first wife, Leona, was probably the most critical. Several of Fisher's most important novels from his Vridar Hunter Tetralogy are based on this relationship with Leona. Originally, Fisher had claimed that the tetralogy was not autobiographical, but the distinction was so blurred that most critics used the title "autobiographical tetralogy" as much as they used the real one. The similarities were too close. Vridar and Neloa, in the tetralogy, have virtually exact experiences as those between the real Vardis and Leona (Woodward 54). Vridar had almost the exact same childhood as Vardis, as well as the same social and courting experiences (54-55). Vridar, like Vardis was also similarly attracted to a "goddess" (rather than a mere girl) and consequently they both made fools of themselves while trying to court their loves (49). Accordingly, at his engagement, Vridar became "the most jealous man in Idaho," just as Vardis was in reality (53). These courting experiences are contained in the second novel of the tetralogy, Passions Spin the Plot, whereas the early (childhood) experiences are related in the first novel, In Tragic Life. Similarly, the third novel, We Are Betrayed, contains the fateful experiences and disagreements leading up to Neola's (or in reality Leona's) suicide, while the last novel, No Villain Need Be, deals with Vridar's (or Vardis's) guilt and despair after the suicide (Flora 109).
IV. Successful Western Americana Literature
Despite this fateful side of Fisher's almost autobiographical writing, demonstrating knowledge of the tragedies and struggles of life, Vardis Fisher demonstrates a strong sense of Western Americana culture and geography as well. His Toilers of the Hills is the Fisher's first novel having this effect. It is set in the Antelope country of Idaho. In it, a man named Dock Hunter struggles with his wife to make a living as a farmer in the dry Idaho environment. While discovering the secret of dry farming, Dock and his wife, Opal, grow from hating the unforgiving land to loving it, cherishing it for what it is worth (Flora 110). Western stories like this, illustrating knowledge of Western culture and geography, are what Fisher will later be largely appreciated for.
Fisher's Children of God, published in 1939, is his most well-known and appreciated work of all. A historical novel about Mormonism winning him the grand $10,000 Harper Prize, it is what critics would attribute most to his success (Arrington 245). Fisher's knowledge of Mormonism must have contributed to its success. His predecessors came across the plains with Brigham Young in the great Mormon Exodus, and Fisher was originally a Mormon himself (Corlett 202). However, his "power of imagery, command of language, technical knowledge of form, and general power to stir the imagination" must have been especially displayed in this novel as well, and made a further contribution to its success (Arrington 246).
The final work of Vardis Fisher, Mountain Man: A Novel of Male and Female in the Early American West, is another example of Fisher's strong sense of Western culture and geography. Having the most positive response since Children of God, Mountain Man holds a special value to Fisher's success (Flora 116). Sam Minard is the protagonist of this story. He is the supreme example of a North American Western mountain man. In this novel Fisher portrays him as tough as leather as well as one tender towards nature. Fisher's excellent use of language and knowledge of Western life is commendable. Mountain Man is based on an actual man, "Liver-eating Johnson," who avenges the death of his wife and child by the Crow Indians. Fisher also shows great knowledge of American Indians in this novel, examining their ways and even portraying them more favorably to Sam than those of the white man (Flora 116).
V. Conclusion—The Greatness of a Lifetime
Many great works emerged from the storm and confusion of a lifetime—one troubled by some of life's greatest struggles. Many of these struggles became basis for Fisher's most prominent writing. This is especially true about the Vridar Hunter Tetralogy, which involves Fisher's experiences with Leona—love, jealousy, guilt, as well as his early teen troubles. The same isolation that once hindered Fisher aided him by giving him the knowledge of frontier life that was later employed in his literary works—even by the somewhat inadvertent insertion of autobiography as fiction. Toilers of the Hills initiated his Western Americana novels while Children of God initiated his success. Mountain Man was also an important Western Americana novel in its ingenuity and brilliant diction. Thus, by the means of these accomplishments, Vardis Fisher proved to be one of the most influential and successful Western writers of the Twentieth Century. While demonstrating a strong sense of Western culture and geography, Fisher's works go beyond the norm. They don't just entertain with fiction; they demonstrate true wisdom of the nature of life—and not only of life's humors, but of its grittiest and most profound struggles prone to man.
VI. Writings by Vardis Fisher
"Vridar Hunter Tetralogy": In Tragic Life, Caxton, 1932, Doubleday, 1933; Passions Spin the Plot, Caxton, 1934, Doubleday, 1934; We are Betrayed, Caxton, 1935, Doubleday, 1935; No Villain Need Be, Caxton, 1936, Doubleday, 1936.
"Testament of Man Series": Darkness and the Deep, Vanguard, 1943; The Golden Rooms, Vanguard, 1944; Intimations of Eve, Vanguard, 1946; Adam and the Serpent, Vanguard, 1947; The Divine Passion, Vanguard, 1948; The Valley of Vision, Abelard, 1951; The Island of the Innocent, Abelard, 1952; A Goat for Azazel, A. Swallow, 1956; Jesus Came Again: A Parable, A. Swallow, 1956; Peace Like a River: A Novel of Christian Asceticism, A. Swallow, 1957; My Holy Satan, A Novel of Christian Twilight, A. Swallow, 1958; Orphans in Gethsemane, A. Swallow, 1960.
American historical novels: Children of God, Harper, 1939; City of Illusion, Vanguard, 1941; The Mothers, Vanguard, 1943; Pemmican: A Novel of the Hudson's Bay Company, Doubleday, 1956; Tale of Valor: A Novel of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Doubleday, 1958.
Other books: Sonnets to An Imaginary Madonna, Vinal, 1927; Toilers of the Hills, Houghton, 1928; Dark Bridwell, Houghton, 1931; I See No Sin, Boriswood, 1934; The Neurotic Nightingale, Casanova, 1935; Odyssey of a Hero, Rittenhouse, 1937; April: A Fable of Love, Caxton, 1937; Forgive Us Our Virtues, a Comedy of Evasions, Caxton, 1938; The Caxton Printers in Idaho, A Short History, Cincinnati Society of Bibliosophers, 1944; God or Caesar? The Writing of Fiction for Beginners, Caxton, 1953; Love and Death; The Complete Short Stories of Vardis Fisher, Doubleday, 1959; Suicide or Murder? The Strange Death of Governor Meriwether Lewis, A. Swallow, 1962; Thomas Wolfe as I Knew Him, and Other Essays, A. Swallow, 1963.
VII. Works Cited
Arrington, Leonard J. History of Idaho. Vol. 1. Moscow, ID: U of Idaho P; Boise, ID: Idaho State Historical Society, 1994.
Corlett, John. "Vardis Fisher." Conversations: A Companion Book to the Idaho Public Television's Proceeding On Through a Beautiful Country, A History of Idaho. Ed. Susan M. Stacy. np: Idaho Educational Public Broadcasting Foundation, 1990. 202-206.
Flora, Joseph M. "Vardis Fisher." Twentieth-Century American Western Writers. Ed. Richard H. Cracroft. Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 206. Detroit: Gale, 1999. 106-118.
Woodward, Tim. Tiger on the Road. Caldwell, ID: Caxton, 1989.
This essay was submitted by a student of Joanne Davis, an English teacher at Emmett High School in Idaho.