Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Her Son's Wife by Dorothy Canfield Fisher Dorothy Canfield Fisher. Dorothy Frances Canfield Fisher (born February 17, 1879 in Lawrence , Kansas , † November 9, 1958 in Arlington , Vermont ) was an American author and civil rights activist. For Eleanor Roosevelt , she was one of the ten most influential personalities in the United States. She campaigned for women's rights and equality. She also established Montessori education in the United States , chaired an adult education program, and shaped her country's literary taste as a member of the Book of the Month Club's selection committee between 1925 and 1951 . contents. Dorothy Frances Canfield - named after the character Dorothea Brooke from the novel Middlemarch - was born in 1879 as the second child and only daughter of political scientist and sociologist James Hulme Canfield and author and artist Flavia Camp . Her childhood was marked by numerous moves: from 1877 to 1891, her father was a professor at the University of Kansas , where he taught history, and eventually became president of the National Education Association . He was later rector of the University of Nebraska , president of Ohio State University, and finally librarian at Columbia University . At the age of 10, Canfield Fisher went to France with her mother for a year, where the mother studied art. She learned French during this time and later decided to study French, which she graduated from Ohio State University with a bachelor's degree in 1899 . Then she studied Romance studies at the Sorbonne in Paris and at Columbia University, where she received her doctorate in England in 1904 with a dissertation on Corneille and Racine . Her first professional work as a writer appeared in 1902: in March she wrote about Holy Week in Spain in the New York Times . In 1903 she worked briefly as a research assistant at Western Reserve University in Ohio , but soon took a job as a secretary at the Horace Man School in New York City . During this time she published some short stories in magazines. In 1905 she toured Europe and visited Germany, France and Norway. Her first novella “Gunhild” from 1907 is the result of this journey. When her mother fell ill, Canfield Fisher gave up her job, took care of her mother and devoted her free time to writing. Canfield married John Redwood Fisher in 1907, whom she met at Columbia University. The couple had two children. The daughter Sally was born in 1909 and after her marriage to the zoologist John Paul Scott wrote children's books as Sally Scott herself, as did Canfield Fisher's granddaughter Vivian Scott. Their son James became a surgeon. As Canfield Fisher 1911, the day care center Casa dei Bambini of Maria Montessori in Rome attended Montessori and met in person, she was so impressed that she decided to bring the Montessori method to America. She translated Montessori's books into English and wrote three non- fiction books and two novels on Montessori's pedagogical approaches. During the First World War , she followed her husband to France in 1916. While John Redwood Fisher volunteered in the Medical Corps, Canfield Fisher raised the children in Crouy-sur-Ourcq near the front lines and worked on a Braille newspaper for blind war veterans. She also founded a convalescent home for French refugee children from occupied territories. During this time, under the impact of the war, numerous short stories were written, which she published in 1918 and 1919. In addition, she wrote her best-known novella "Understood Betsy" (German: The very best apple sauce 1917) during this time . After returning to the United States in 1918, the Fishers settled on a Canfield homestead in Vermont. Canfield Fisher was appointed to the Vermont State Education Committee in 1919 to improve public education in rural areas. In addition to child education, she was particularly concerned with education and rehabilitation in women's prisons. After World War II , Canfield Fisher chaired a US committee that pardoned conscientious objectors in 1921 and helped Jewish intellectuals emigrate. She wrote her last fictional works in the late 1930s. After her son died on a war mission in the Philippines, she only published non-fiction books. Since its founding in 1926, Canfield Fisher was a member of the selection committee of the American book club "Book of the Month Club" and thus decisively shaped the literary taste of the Americans during this time. In 1931 she was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters . Canfield-Fisher died of complications from a stroke in Arlington, Vermont in 1958 at the age of 79 . engagement. Canfield-Fisher was a member of numerous institutions, including: Adult Education Association American Youth Commission of the American Council on Education (1936–1940) Selection Committee of the Book of the Month Club (1926–1951) Honorary Committee of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom (1935) The Lighthouse Organization (1917) National Institute of Arts and Letters (1931) Vermont Board of Education (1921) Honors. Canfield Fisher was the first woman to be awarded an honorary doctorate from Dartmouth College . She also received honorary degrees from the University of Nebraska, Middlebury College , Swarthmore College , Smith College , Williams College , Ohio State University, and the University of Vermont . The Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award is a prize for new American children's books, the winner of which is determined by a children's jury. At Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont , a student residence hall was named after Canfield Fisher. Works. Canfield Fisher's books deal primarily with everyday problems and the development of the individual and are strongly influenced by her experiences in Europe. Her talent for portraying the characters in her works was considered to be outstanding. Her books have been translated into French, German, Dutch and Italian. Her best-known book is The Very Best Applesauce (original title: Understood Betsy ), a children's book about a little orphan girl who was sent to Vermont to live with the cousins. Canfield Fisher wrote a total of 22 novels and short stories and 18 non- fiction books. The author spoke five languages. In addition to her own writing, she was also active as a literary critic and translator. For tax reasons, she wrote her fiction works as "Canfield" and the non-fiction books as "Canfield Fisher". Canfield Fisher was mainly influenced by the close friendship with Willa Cather . with which she published her first literary work in the yearbook of the University of Nebraska in 1894 with “The Fear that walks by Noonday”. She was also in close contact with Henry Seidel Canby , Richard Wright , Heywood Broun , Witter Bynner , Isak Dinesen and Robert Frost . Her Son's Wife by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. From and To can't be the same language. That page is already in . Something went wrong. Check the webpage URL and try again. Sorry, that page did not respond in a timely manner. Sorry, that page doesn't exist or is preventing translations. Sorry, that page doesn't exist or is preventing translations. Sorry, that page doesn't exist or is preventing translations. Something went wrong, please try again. Try using the Translator for the Microsoft Edge extension instead. Her Son's Wife by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. AKA Dorothea Frances Canfield. Gender: Female Race or Ethnicity: White Sexual orientation: Straight Occupation: Author. Nationality: United States Executive summary: Understood Betsy. Father: James Hulme Canfield (college professor) Mother: Flavia Camp Husband: John Redwood Fisher (m. 1907, d. 1959, one son, one daughter) Daughter: Sally (b. 1909) Son: James (b. 1913, d. 1945) Author of books: Gunhild ( 1907 , novel) A Montessori Mother ( 1912 ) The Montessori Manual ( 1913 ) Mothers and Children ( 1914 ) Hillsboro People ( 1915 , with Sarah N. Cleghorn) The Bent Twig ( 1915 , novel) Fellow Captains ( 1916 , with Sarah N. Cleghorn) Understood Betsy ( 1916 ) Home Fires in France ( 1918 , short stories) The Brimming Cup ( 1921 ) Her Son's Wife ( 1926 ) Why Stop Learning? ( 1927 ) Basque People ( 1931 ) Bonfire ( 1933 ) On a Rainy Day ( 1938 ) Seasoned Timber ( 1939 , novel) Our Young Folks ( 1943 ) Paul Revere and the Minute Men ( 1950 , juvenile) A Fair World For All: The Meaning of the Declaration of Human Rights ( 1952 ) Vermont Tradition: The Biography of an Outlook on Life ( 1953 ) Memories of My Home Town ( 1955 ) A Harvest of Stories from a Half Century of Writing ( 1956 , short stories) Memories of Arlington, Vermont ( 1957 ) ISBN 13: 9780860683476. Book Description Little, Brown Book Group Limited, 1986. Paperback. Condition: Very Good. The book has been read, but is in excellent condition. Pages are intact and not marred by notes or highlighting. The spine remains undamaged. Seller Inventory # GOR003103375. 2. Her Son's Wife. Book Description Little, Brown Book Group Limited, 1986. Paperback. Condition: Fair. A readable copy of the book which may include some defects such as highlighting and notes. Cover and pages may be creased and show discolouration. Seller Inventory # GOR006048054. 3. Her Son's Wife. Book Description -, 1986. Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Her Son's Wife This book is in very good condition and will be shipped within 24 hours of ordering. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. This book has clearly been well maintained and looked after thus far. Money back guarantee if you are not satisfied. See all our books here, order more than 1 book and get discounted shipping. Seller Inventory # 7719-9780860683476. 4. Her Son's Wife. Book Description Virago 19/06/1986, 1986. Paperback. Condition: Very Good. Shipped within 24 hours from our UK warehouse. Clean, undamaged book with no damage to pages and minimal wear to the cover. Spine still tight, in very good condition. Remember if you are not happy, you are covered by our 100% money back guarantee. Seller Inventory # 6545-9780860683476. 5. Her Son's Wife. Book Description Virago, 1986. Paperback. Condition: Good. Orders shipped daily from the UK. Professional seller. Seller Inventory # mon0000231089. Novel Experience. Her Son’s Wife by Dorothy Canfield Fisher 1926. This book struck chords with me both as a former teacher and as a daughter. Mary Bascomb is a teacher, mother, mother in law and eventually grandmother. She has been accustomed to being the center and controlling influence in her son Ralph’s world until the unexpected arrival of Lottie Hicks, his new wife. Lottie is someone who cannot be controlled by Mrs Bascomb and the latter has finally met her match. The sparks begin to fly until Mrs Bascomb changes her ways grudgingly. The arrival and life sustaining entrance of her grand daughter into her life propels her to take action. How she copes with this situation is the pivotal part of the book. It presents the reader with a moral conundrum. Fisher’s description of family hostilities, and turmoil is very truthfully and sharply reported. All the character’s helplessness in this whirlpool of emotions is palpably felt by the reader. Mrs Bascomb makes a major decision which has a profound effect on the livesof each of the family circle. This reader had difficulty accepting that decision even though it had a positive outcome for all concerned. The moral justification for the decision is left to the reader to sort out for him or herself. Overall, a fascinating and insightful read and a book that is unnecessarily neglected by posterity as it speaks to anyone who has ever been part of a family unit which is the vast majority of us. Clover Adams: A Gilded and Heartbreaking Life by Natalie Dykstra. A brief encounter with a charismatic and quick silver woman who in spite of her husband’s diminutive stature was cast in his shadow. The wife of the famed historian and author Henry Adams, Marian “Clover” Hooper was not able to create a life-sized shadow of herself. In spite of Dykstra’s efforts Clover remains in the shadows. The author’s sources are thin as her subject never kept a diary and only very rarely corresponded with her husband because they were seldom apart. Clover did find her muse in photography and who knows what the future would have held for her and her craft if she hadn’t fallen into a crippling depression and tragically taken her own life at age 42. During her lifetime, she was more well known for her expertise as a Washington hostess of the nineteenth century entertaining the powerful and famous with her sparkling conversational skills given full flower at her daily open houses. Clover is one of many women attached to powerful men who reap some benefits from the relationship but are also personally and creatively stifled by them . Dykstra leaves the reader wanting to know more, especially by viewing the photographic collection that Clover so painstakingly created. The Reef by Edith Wharton. The reef is a character driven novel about people living lives of stifling class consciousness. George Darrow’s fall from grace with the enchanting Sophy Viner is the catalyst for a web of lies and confusion which entangles not only them but Anna Leath and her stepson Owen. Wharton gradually reveals the implications of the brief affair and its concommittant untruths and dissembling. Both Anna and Owen, the unwitting victims are obliged to make decisions as the truth reals itself. Wharton’s opaque denouement to the novel leaves the reader in the dark about Anna. She also shuffles Sophy off to an uncertain fate and Darrow , the weakest of the characters may end up with his undeserved prize, Anna Leath herself. Fraud by Anita Brookner. Once again, Brookner delves into the lives of unattached and isolated women with the parallel story lines of Anna Durrant and Vera Marsh. Anna, the only child of widowed Amy is left with the shards of her life when her mother dies. “They had loved one another despairingly: that was their undoing and despair in love merely prolongs its intensity as well as its duration which is forever”. Vera, on the other hand has had a satisfying marriage but with the death of her husband and old age beginning to take its toll, she must cope with loneliness and loss without falling into the trap of dependence on her adult children. Neither of the women were memorable characters but the mysterious disappeance of Anna and the final unfolding of its mystery did not seem to fit in with the behavior patterns which Anna had developed from half a lifetime of practical and emotional dependence on her mother. Undue Influence by Anita Brookner. A pervasive loneliness shadows “Undue Influence”. Claire Pitt, its heroine lives her life vicariously through other people. She is a product of an unhappy childhood with a disabled father and a dutiful but pre-occupied mother. Claire meets Martin and then his invalid wife Cynthia and in spite of herself, she becomes attracted to him. Claire also seems to be looking for meaning and in her life and a loving, stable relationship and believing that Martin might provide this for her when circumstances change his life. Everything begins to unravel for Claire however, as she tries to absorb losses that begin to mount up in her life. The reader is left with a totally ambiguous climax in terms of Claire’s fate. What routes does she choose? Does she have the strength to go on? These are the questions left not clearly answered. As in her other works, Anita Brookner delineates the struggles of the modern unattached woman whose freedom has its penalties. The book is a powerful, understated yet complex read. The Virgin in the Garden by A S Byatt 1978 428pp. The breadth and complexity of this novel displays the author’s intellectual skills. this reader was more impressed with her storytelling as the plot that she wove was clever,and intricate. This book is the first volume in a tetralogy of the memorable Potter family especially the younger daughter, Frederica. The Potters are very bright people but their likeability is not enhanced by their intelligence. The book alternates its story line to accommodate the changes in the lives of the three children. Byatt is able tp spin a web of growing suspense throughout the novel and it holds the reader’s interest enough to wade through some parts that are extremely blogged down in metaphysical speculations. It will be hoped that in the later volumes the author will pare down similar chapters to concentrate more on the story telling and character analysis that she does so well. This reader immediately after finishing the book went to the library to borrow “Still Life” the next volume in the series. Look at Me by Anita Brookner. I thought that this book title and a review would be a good introduction so here goes! Anita Brookner teases and puzzles me. Her character, Frances Hinton’s thoughts and feelings written in the first person seem almost impossible to separate from what one would imagine were Brookner’s own. Looking at a photograph of the author displays the parallels with the character’s own physical attributes. That being said, the map that Brookner lays out for Frances follows paths that eventually seem to lead her back to her starting point. Since her life felt unfulfilled and she lives it as a self-described observer, her journey’s end leaves the reader with the sadness and dissatisfaction of a life half-lived. It’s also difficult to ascertain how Brookner feels about Frances’ inability to make changes that might lead to a more fulfilling life. In spite of the book’s total preoccupation with Frances’ inner life I was always fascinated and never bored by it and I attribute that to Brookner’s skills. Dorothy Canfield Fisher. Dorothy Canfield Fisher (February 17, 1879 – November 9, 1958) was an American author, educational reformer, and social activist based in New England. Her ancestors settled in Vermont in 1764 and owned land there ever since. Her father, James Hulme Canfield, was a college professor and president of several universities, and so the family valued education. Her own education was rather cosmopolitan, as she moved among several midwest university towns and traveled to France and Italy to broaden her scope. After receiving a bachelor’s degree from Ohio State University and studying at the Sorbonne in Paris, she received a Ph.D in French from Columbia University in 1905. Eventually, she had the ability to speak five languages. Embarking for Europe, and the cause of refugees. She was preparing to be a language teacher when she married James Redwood Fisher in 1907, settling on one of her family’s farms in Vermont. She continued to travel to Europe frequently but did most of her writing on the family homestead. Both Dorothy Fisher and her husband were closely affiliated with French issues, so upon the outbreak of World War I, they took their children and embarked for France to participate with relief work. She established the Bidart Home for Children for young refugees, and organized an effort to print books in Braille for blinded combat veterans. In February of 1919, Red Cross Magazine described her wartime activities: “She took a family of refugee children under her charge to the Pyrenees; she helped establish two hospitals for children under the Red Cross, one specially devoted to tuberculous children. Her ardent activities included a home for the children of munition workers near Paris.” A social and educational activist. Immensely involved in social activism, Dorothy Canfield Fisher was also an advocate of women’s rights at a time when those causes were resisted by the mainstream. She also helped create channels for assistance to Jewish immigrants in the 1920s, a time when quotas were strict. In addition, she was instrumental in bringing Montessori education to the U.S., and helped popularize adult education. An international reputation. Fisher gradually gained an international reputation. Her books were published not only in the U.S. but also in France, England, the Netherlands, and several Scandinavian countries. She also continued to be involved in education, and in 1921 became the only woman to be a member of the State Board of Education of Vermont. She wrote literary criticism and worked on the board of judges of Book-of-the-Month Club for a time. Her fiction and nonfiction held progressive views of parenting at a time when motherhood was still sentimentalized. Unfortunately, her work is no longer widely read today. The mixed legacy of Dorothy Canfield Fisher. As an author, she was considered a consummate woman of letters. Her body of work included 22 novels and some 18 works of nonfiction. Some of her best known novels included The Brimming Cup, The Home-Maker , Rough-Hewn, Raw Material, Her Son’s Wife, The Deepening Stream, and Understood Betsy . She was also a prolific author of nonfiction titles. The Manchester Guardian said of her, “She is one of the few American authors who. while profoundly influenced by her European experiences … retains a full-blooded Americanism of the best kind.” In the last few years, her legacy has come under scrutiny. It has been alleged that she was involved in Vermont’s eugenics movement. The jury is still out on this one; read more about this controversy . Dorothy Canfield Fisher in her later years. More about Dorothy Canfield Fisher. On this site. Major Works. Understood Betsy The Bedquilt and Other Stories The Squirrel Cage The Bent Twig Hillsboro People Rough-Hewn The New Hesperides: And Other Poems A Fair World for All: The Meaning of the Declaration of Human Rights What Shall We Do Now? 500 Children’s Games and Pastimes Home Fires in France Self Reliance. Biographies. Keeping Fires Night and Day: Selected Letters of Dorothy Canfield Fisher by Mark J. Madigan and Clifton Fadiman Dorothy Canfield Fisher: A Biography by Ida H. Washington. More Information. Wikipedia Dorothy Canfield Fisher on Project Gutenberg Reader discussion of Fisher’s books on Goodreads. *This is an Amazon Affiliate link. If the product is purchased by linking through, Literary Ladies Guide receives a modest commission, which helps maintain our site and helps it to continue growing! Related Posts. Categories: Author biography. 2 Responses to “Dorothy Canfield Fisher” As a child my mother read “Understood Betsy”, it must have been a prized book because my mother named me Betsy. She kept a copy of the book which is labeled “Bixler School Library” my mom passed away 10 years ago, I found the book in her cedar chest, yesterday, 6/2/2020. I am 74 years old, if possible I would like to write to one of her decendents and let them know about my mom and this book. I noticed she graduated from Ohio State as has my nephew, and two of his sons, this makes me feel even closer to her. Thank you so much for this lovely comment! And what a treasure to find that in a cedar chest. I don’t know if Dorothy Canfield has any descendants alive today, but if you can’t find a way to contact them, you might see if she has her papers in a university archive; they might be interested in this copy, especially if it’s a first edition.