Vardis Fisher - Life and Works

Life and Works

Vardis Fisher was born in Annis, Idaho, near present-day Rigby, of a Mormon family and descent. After graduating from the University of Utah in 1920, Fisher earned a Master of Arts degree (1922) and a Ph.D. (1925) at the University of Chicago.

Fisher was an assistant professor of English at the University of Utah (1925–1928) and at New York University (1928–1931), where he became friends with Thomas Wolfe. Fisher also taught as a summer professor at Montana State University (1932–1933) in Bozeman. Academic jobs were sharply reduced during the Great Depression.

Between 1935 and 1939, he worked as the director of the Idaho Writer's Project of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) of the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. He wrote several books about Idaho. He was also a newspaper columnist for the Idaho Statesman and Idaho Statewide (which later became the Intermountain Observer).

One of his hobbies was house construction, and he built his own home in the Thousand Springs area near Hagerman, Idaho. Fisher did the wiring, masonry, carpentry and plumbing himself. His father Joe, a hunter, had a working relationship with the Blackfeet Indians of the area.