Quarry Hill Creative Center - History

History

On April 10, 1946, Irving Fiske (born Irving Fishman in Brooklyn, New York, on March 5, 1908), a playwright, inventor, freelance writer, and speaker, and his wife, Barbara Hall Fiske, (born Isabelle Daniel Hall in Tucson, Arizona on September 9, 1919), an artist and one of the few female cartoonists of the World War II era, bought 140 acres (0.57 km2) of mountain, meadow, and brook land in Rochester, Vermont. They had been married on January 8, 1946.

Irving, a 1928 graduate of Cornell University, worked for the Federal Writer's Project of the WPA (Works Progress Administration) during the 1930s. Fiske also wrote for H. L. Mencken's American Mercury, had corresponded with George Bernard Shaw, had written an article praised by critic Colin Wilson, among others, "Bernard Shaw's Debt to William Blake", and had translated Shakespeare's Hamlet into modern English. This was considered a controversial literary action at the time. John Ciardi, who did not approve, reprinted excerpts in the Saturday Review. Most readers wrote in favor of the translation. Barbara was one of the few female comic book artists in the United States during the World War II era. She drew Girl Commandos and other strips for Harvey Comics, signing herself B. Hall because female cartoonists were not held in high esteem.