Dorothy Canfield Collection
Scope and Contents
The Dorothy Canfield Collection (1865-1958) contains personal correspondence, family papers and assorted memorabilia, book manuscripts and galley proofs, holographs of published articles and stories, critical studies and reviews of Fisher's work, photographs, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, miscellaneous printed material, and the material generated by her extensive civic and educational activities. Highlighted in this latter category are the documents and letters which pertain to her work as a Book-of-the-Month Club selection judge. The collection has been most heavily used by researchers on Fisher's correspondents, especially with Willa Cather. The Cather letters constitute the only material in these holdings whose use is restricted.
Materials on the collection background, including the inventory, deed-of-gift, and bibliographic data are in box 1. Family papers (boxes 1-3) are arranged alphabetically by subject. Family correspondence (box 3) consists largely of letters from Dorothy Canfield Fisher to family members, the bulk of these being her round robin letters from France during World War I. These are arranged alphabetically by major and notable correspondent. Fisher's educational, social and civic activities (boxes 23-31) are arranged alphabetically by subject: Book-of-the-Month Club (boxes 23-26) contain correspondence, newsletters and reviews, Broadcasts (box 27), Civic Organizations (box 27), Educational Institutions (boxes 26-28), Educational Organizations (box 28), Relief Work (boxes 28-29), Speeches (boxes 29-30), Textbooks (box 30), Vermont Affairs (box 31) and Writer's Groups (box 31). Awards (boxes 31-32) are arranged chronologically.
Fisher's articles and stories (boxes 32-37) are arranged alphabetically by title, with untitled pieces at the end of the series (box 37) alphabetically by subject. Book manuscripts (boxes 37-64) are arranged chronologically in order to highlight Fisher's artistic development. Dramatizations (box 65) are arranged chronologically. Introductions Dorothy Canfield Fisher wrote for the works of others (box 65) are listed alphabetically by author. Reviews written by Fisher, but not as part of her Book-of-the-Month Club activities (box 66) are arranged alphabetically by author. Critical Studies of Fisher's work (box 66) are arranged alphabetically by author. Newspaper reviews (boxes 68-69) of her work are arranged chronologically. Photographs (boxes 69-70) are arranged alphabetically by subject. Miscellaneous items (boxes 70-72) are arranged alphabetically by subject. See also: oversized manuscripts file, the collections of Sarah N. Cleghorn, Bradford Smith and Walter Hard.
The 1987 Addition to the Dorothy Canfield Collection
The contents of the 1987 Addition span the years from 1861 to 1958. The Addition primarily contains personal, business and professional correspondence; family correspondence, papers, and memorabilia; and book and article manuscripts and typescripts.
The major highlight of the addition is the batch (20) of rare letters between Willa Cather and Fisher, written between 1899 and 1906, and centering on a fracas between the two over a short story Cather wrote. Use of the Cather letters is restricted; see the main inventory for their location and details of use.
Another significant unit in the Addition is the complete correspondence from Harry Scherman, the President of the Book-of-the-Month Club during Fisher's tenure there, as well as personal letters from Bernadine Scherman. Harry Scherman's letters are noticeably absent from the main collection; the dated letters in the Addition span 1941 to 1946, and many deal with World War II related issues.
The last major unit of correspondence is additional round robin letters from Fisher, in France, to her family in the United States, during World War I. The main collection contains the larger remainder of her round robin letters.
In the family papers and memorabilia, significant portions include personal letters from and between James and Flavia Canfield, dating back to 1870. Many clippings trace Flavia's professional interests. A cache of photographs is included in a series of letters from the Layugs, at the Fisher Memorial Clinic in the Phillippines, to Dorothy and John Fisher during the late 1950s.
The bulk of the collection consists of manuscripts and typescripts of the novel, Bonfire, although there are also numerous typescripts and copies of articles by Fisher. The overall value of the 1987 Addition is thus mixed. The Cather letters, for example, are extremely valuable, while some of the memorabilia, such as numerous copies of James Canfield's obituary, are of comparably little interest. Clearly, a few items in the Addition were deliberately saved by Fisher; other items are incidentals, though none without some interest.
Dates
- 1865-1958
Creator
- Fisher, Dorothy Canfield, 1879-1958. (Person)
Language of Materials
English
Access:
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights:
All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Curator of Manuscripts.
Biography
Dorothy Canfield Fisher was born in Lawrence, Kansas, February 17, 1879, the second child and only daughter of James Hulme Canfield, educator, college professor, Chancellor and president, respectively, at University of Kansas, University of Nebraska and Ohio State, and Flavia Camp Canfield, artist and writer. She is of New England descent. The Canfields came to America in 1636, and settled permanently in Vermont in 1764. With her marriage to John Redwood Fisher and their subsequent removal to one of the Canfield family homesteads in Arlington, VT, Dorothy became prominently and intimately connected with Vermont and state affairs - as a most active public citizen, best-known and well-loved woman of letters, and unofficial "biographer."
Dorothy Canfield was educated in the United States and France. At the age of ten she spent a year in Paris while Flavia pursued art studies. Dorothy picked up foreign languages readily, and in the course of later trips, she became an accomplished linguist. Her AB degree was awarded at Ohio State University in 1899 while her father was President there. She pursued graduate study at the Sorbonne and Columbia University in preparation for a career as a teacher of modern languages, and she earned her Ph.D. degree from Columbia in 1904.
While at Columbia, Dorothy Canfield met John Redwood Fisher, and she married him in 1907. Turning aside her plans for an academic career, she devoted herself to creative writing (for both adults and juveniles), translating and criticism. A daughter, Sally, was born in 1909, a son, Jimmy, in 1913.
Because Dorothy had lived and studied in Europe, both she and her husband felt genuine personal distress at the outbreak of the first world war. In 1915 John Fisher joined the American Volunteer Ambulance corps and served with the French Army until the end of the war. In August, 1916 Dorothy and her two children joined him, and the family settled in Crouy-sur-Ourcq situated five miles from the Western Front. For over two years the Fishers did war relief work. Dorothy was instrumental in organizing Braille printing of books and magazines for blinded soldiers and establishing the Bidart Home for Children, a convalescent home for refugees. Her progressive conscience led her into activities which spanned several years and both world wars: fresh-air and adoption programs for refugee children, and the Children's Crusade for Children, a penny-sharing relief program for American schoolchildren. She headed the committee which urged the United States to pardon its conscientious objectors, sponsored the emigration of and resettlement assistance to Jewish intellectuals and professionals; and financed the delivery of CARE packages to families with whom friendships had been formed during earlier visits to Europe. After her son, then an Army surgeon, died as a result of wounds received during the 1945 raid on the Japanese POW camp at Cabanatuan, Dorothy and her husband sponsored a year's study at Harvard Medical School for the Philippine couple who tried to save young Fisher's life. Her war relief work earned Dorothy Canfield Fisher citations of appreciation from Eleanor Roosevelt, Madame Chaing Kai-shek and the Danish government.
It was during a trip to Rome in 1912 that Canfield Fisher met Maria Montessori and became interested in her system of child training. This interest in educational theory remained an active and life-long concern, and led to the publication by Canfield Fisher of several books on education and childbearing. A Montessori Mother explained the theory of the Montessori method, and detailed how it could be adapted to American homes and schools. Another book, Why Stop Learning?, addressed adult education. In 1919, she was appointed a member of the State Board of Education of Vermont, and consequently worked to improve the conditions of rural school systems. The belief in the efficacy of education which she inherited from her father - particularly the benefits of a well-stocked library for every American - convinced her to participate in the Book-of-the-Month Club as a selection judge. This position Dorothy Canfield Fisher filled for twenty-five years, beginning with the Club's inception in 1926.
Of Canfield Fisher's literary production, the Manchester (England) Guardian has written, "She is one of the very few American authors who, while profoundly influenced by her European experiences, and her appreciation of many things in Europe, retains a full-blooded Americanism of the best kind. We are tired of the young men and women who are too proud to live out of Paris, and despise the culture of New England. The other American authors, who have no sense of anything outside the States, seem rather limited to a European. Miss Canfield is happy in being able to apply her European knowledge to American conditions; and she occupies a very remarkable position in consequence among American authors." Thematically, her works concern the problems of personal life and individual growth. Her characters move through a variety of locales, all convincingly presented by the author: New England or Midwestern small towns, war-torn Europe, and the Basque country of France. She portrays men, women, and children experiencing with emotional intensity the intimate conflicts of everyday life- supported by or defending their own best ethical and spiritual standards. Trial and temptation exist in her characters' lives, but Canfield Fisher's heroes and heroines always prevail. Contemporary reception of her work won widespread popular and critical acclaim, with several of her books having been translated into French, German, Dutch and Italian. Present-day tastes, however, would consider her moral standard to be "old-fashioned" and her writing to be obviously didactic. A complete list of Canfield Fisher's major works appears at the end of this biographical sketch.
Dorothy Canfield Fisher died on November 9, 1958. Her philosophy of leading a rich and full life had won her the admiration of her readers and a highly-regarded reputation in many fields, as a novelist and short story writer, an essayist and critic, an educational philosopher and leader of social welfare works. Her correspondence evidences the extensive personal contact she shared with other writers of the day, including Henry Seidel Canby, Heywood Broun, Willa Cather, Isaak Dinesen and of course, Robert Frost. She was awarded honorary degrees from Dartmouth (being the first woman to be so honored), Columbia, Nebraska, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Smith, Williams, Ohio State and the University of Vermont.
For a book-length study of Dorothy Canfield Fisher, see Elizabeth Yates' The Lady from Vermont: Dorothy Canfield Fisher's Life and World. (Brattleboro: Stephen Greene Press, 1971), originally published by E.P. Dutton and Co. in 1958 as Pebble in a Pool.
Biographical / Historical
- 1904 Corneille and Racine in England
- 1906 English Rhetoric and Composition - with G.R. Carpenter
- 1906 What Shall We Do Now? - with others
- 1907 Gunhild
- 1912 The Squirrel Cage
- 1913 The Montessori Mother
- 1914 Mothers and Children
- 1915 Hillsboro People
- 1915 The Bent Twig
- 1916 The Real Motive
- 1916 Fellow Captains- with Sarah N. Cleghorn
- 1917 Understood Betsy
- 1918 Home-Fires in France
- 1919 The Day of Glory
- 1921 The Brimming Cup
- 1921 Papini's Christ- translated from the Italian
- 1922 Rough Hewn
- 1923 Raw Material
- 1924 The Home-Maker
- 1925 Made to Order
- 1926 Her Son's Wife
- 1927 Why Stop Learning?
- 1930 The Deepening Stream
- 1931 Basque People
- 1933 Bonfire
- 1937 Fables for Parents
- 1939 Seasoned Timber
- 1940 Tell Me a Story
- 1943 Our Young Folks
- 1946 American Portraits
- 1949 Four Square
- 1949 Something Old, Something New
- 1950 Paul Revere and the Minutemen
- 1950 Our Independence and the Constitution
- 1952 A Fair World For All
- 1953 Vermont Tradition: The Biography of an Outlook on Life
- 1956 A Harvest of Stories
- 1957 Memories of Arlington, Vermont
- 1958 And Long Remember
The Dorothy Canfield Fisher Canon - Major Works
- 1904
- Corneille and Racine in England
- 1906
- English Rhetoric and Composition - with G.R. Carpenter
- 1906
- What Shall We Do Now? - with others
- 1907
- Gunhild
- 1912
- The Squirrel Cage
- 1913
- The Montessori Mother
- 1914
- Mothers and Children
- 1915
- Hillsboro People
- 1915
- The Bent Twig
- 1916
- The Real Motive
- 1916
- Fellow Captains- with Sarah N. Cleghorn
- 1917
- Understood Betsy
- 1918
- Home-Fires in France
- 1919
- The Day of Glory
- 1921
- The Brimming Cup
- 1921
- Papini's Christ- translated from the Italian
- 1922
- Rough Hewn
- 1923
- Raw Material
- 1924
- The Home-Maker
- 1925
- Made to Order
- 1926
- Her Son's Wife
- 1927
- Why Stop Learning?
- 1930
- The Deepening Stream
- 1931
- Basque People
- 1933
- Bonfire
- 1937
- Fables for Parents
- 1939
- Seasoned Timber
- 1940
- Tell Me a Story
- 1943
- Our Young Folks
- 1946
- American Portraits
- 1949
- Four Square
- 1949
- Something Old, Something New
- 1950
- Paul Revere and the Minutemen
- 1950
- Our Independence and the Constitution
- 1952
- A Fair World For All
- 1953
- Vermont Tradition: The Biography of an Outlook on Life
- 1956
- A Harvest of Stories
- 1957
- Memories of Arlington, Vermont
- 1958
- And Long Remember
Extent
72 boxes
Abstract
The Dorothy Canfield Collection (1865-1958) contains personal correspondence, family papers and assorted memorabilia, book manuscripts and galley proofs, holographs of published articles and stories, critical studies and reviews of Fisher's work, photographs, scrapbooks, newspaper clippings, miscellaneous printed material, and the material generated by her extensive civic and educational activities.
Physical Location
Silver Special Collections, Billings Library.
- Title
- Guide to the Dorothy Canfield Collection, 1865-1958
- Status
- Completed
- Date
- 1998
- Language of description
- Undetermined
- Script of description
- Code for undetermined script
- Language of description note
- English
Repository Details
Part of the University of Vermont Libraries, Special Collections Repository
Silver Special Collections Library
48 University Place, Room B201
Burlington Vermont 05405 U.S.A. US
(802) 656-2138
(802) 656-4038 (Fax)
uvmsc@uvm.edu
