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Draft:David L. Fisher (poet)

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  • Comment: Article appears to largely rely on original research e.g. Ancestry.com, Find-a-grave and an archival interview Sionk (talk) 23:09, 1 November 2023 (UTC)
  • Comment: Almost certainly a notable individual but the article needs to be rewritten to be more encyclopedic and to use more secondary sources. BuySomeApples (talk) 16:35, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

David L. Fisher
BornDavid Lincoln Fisher
(1942-03-16)March 16, 1942
North Carolina, U.S.
DiedFebruary 2, 2015(2015-02-02) (aged 72)
Sacramento, California, U.S.
Resting placeSoutheastern Baptist Theological Seminary Cemetery, Wake Forest, North Carolina, U.S.
Occupation
  • Poet
  • Translator
  • Teacher
EducationHigh school, Rolesville, North Carolina; Bachelor of Arts, summa cum laude, Duke University
Notable awardsTwo National Endowment fellowships; recipient with Stella Monday of the first annual William Carlos Williams Award (for best book of poetry published by small, non-profit, or university press) for Teachings (Back Roads Books, 1977, 1978); winner of the first William Meredith Award for Poetry 2012 for I Hear Always the Dogs on the Hospital Roof

David Lincoln Fisher (16 March 1942 – 2 February 2015) was an American poet and translator. He published six books of original poetry and two of poetry in translation, and was published frequently in Kayak and other literary magazines. His work was recognized with a number of arts grants and awards, including the inaugural William Carlos Williams Award for his 1978 book Teachings. Despite these accomplishments, Fisher remained a relatively unknown outsider in the poetry world due to a lifelong battle with mental illness.[1]

Life and work

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Life and studies

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Fisher graduated from Duke University in 196?[2]. He studied at the University of Tübingen in Tübingen, Germany and the Sorbonne in Paris, and received a degree from the Yale Graduate School of English[3][4]. He was working toward a PhD there as well, but it is unclear whether it was completed.[3][4][5]

He worked as a professor in several colleges, including Saint Mary's College of California in Maraga, CA, and manned suicide prevention hotlines.[4][5]

Fisher married Amanda (Mandy) Hawes on 26 August 1967[3].

David Lincoln Fisher's gravestone at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary Cemetery, Wake Forest, North Carolina, U.S.

Fisher died at the age of 72 in Sacramento, California and was buried at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary Cemetery, Wake Forest, North Carolina, U.S.[6]

Work

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Fisher wrote on many themes across his six published volumes and innumerable periodical appearances. The Book of Madness "derives its concrete detail and poignancy from the author's bout with madness and shock treatment in 1972"[7] (Publisher's Weekly), while the new work in 2012's I Hear Always the Dogs on the Hospital Roof is frequently concerned with Roman philosophy.[citation needed]

Paul Mariah, co-founder of Manroot Books,[8] described his style

To David, his vocabulary was multilingual.... We can be arrested on almost every page of David's work; for his style, content, form. He has established himself as a ranking postmodernist surrealist poet.[citation needed]

Translation

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Fisher was fluent in and translated poetry from several languages.[9] Many of his published poems are translations from French, Italian, Spanish, or German. In Soup No. 3, accompanying his poem Where the Last Huts Are, Fisher wrote:

Good poets borrow, great poets steal. I rest by reading poems in other languages, and rorschach my way into phrasings which I dimly and dreamily understand. When, however, I find a poem which, it seems to me, could not be bettered in any way, and which in its entirety is of living importance, I often seek to translate. As a translator, I am a total conservative; I admire Ben Belitt's translations, but I would never 'better' Neruda or Lorca as he does, so that for example, Neruda's 'confusion of vegetables' becomes 'a bedlam of vegetables,' and in which meaning and number and order freely dissolve. My versions are as literal as I can get them.[10]

Reception

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Fisher never achieved mainstream success, but the quality of his work was recognized by a number of literary foundations. In 1978, his book Teachings won the first annual William Carlos Williams Award. He was awarded two National Endowment fellowships for creative writing, in 1981 and 1993.[11] He also won the first William Meredith Award for Poetry in 2012 for I Hear Always the Dogs on the Hospital Roof.[12]

He received many words of praise from established poets who became aware of his work, including Josephine Miles[13], W. S. Merwin[14], William Meredith[15], and George Oppen[16].

Bibliography

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  • Requiem for Huertebise: Homage to Jean Cocteau (South San Francisco, CA: ManRoot Books, 1974), ASIN B003NXUYGG
  • The Most Wanted Man in America with John William Clouser (Stein and Day, 1975), ISBN 978-0812817713
  • The Book of Madness: Poems (Gallimaufry, 1975; Apple-Wood Press, 1980), ISBN 978-0918222169
  • Teachings (Cotati, CA: Back Roads, 1977; Berkeley: Ross Books, 1978), ISBN 9780918510013 and 0-918510-01-5
  • The Complete Poems of Jean Genet, introduced by David Fisher and Paul Mariah, translated by Gerald Fabian, David Fisher, Paul Mariah, Frank O'Hara, Chet Roaman, Nanos Valaoritis, and Guy Wernham (South San Francisco: Man Root, 1981), ASIN B0041WVP8Y
  • Included in 19 New American Poets of the Golden Gate, Philip Dow, ed. (NY: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1984), ISBN 978-0156361019
  • Appogiatures / Grace Notes - Translations of Jean Cocteau by David Fisher, Paul Mariah, and Chet Roaman, with Joseph Lomax (Boyes Hot Springs, CA: ManRoot Press, 1988), ASIN B001CJZGPC
  • Homage to Pablo Neruda (Happy Rock Publishers, 1994), ASIN B001FYM4X6
  • I Hear Always the Dogs on the Hospital Roof: New and Collected Poems (New London, CT: Little Red Tree Publishing, LLC, 2012), ISBN 978-1935656173

Literary magazines

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  • "Starry Night," "January 4, 1960 (In Memory of Albert Camus)," The Archive, Vol. 75, No. 3 (February 1963)
  • "The Poet Salutes His Malady, by Jean Cocteau," trans. David Fisher, Manroot, No. 9 (Fall 1973)
  • "the seahorse," "the house," "the birds of arles," "a junkie with a flute in the rain," Kayak 36, 1974, pp.8-12
  • "Requiem for Heurtebise: Homage to Jean Cocteau," Manroot, No. 10 (Oct., 1974), pp.192-196
  • "The Teacher," Paris Review, issue 61, Spring 1975
  • "Amanda's Music" and "Why Do You Want to Suffer Less?" Back Roads, issue 7, 1975, pp.23,46
  • "Le Crytoscope" and "1er Divertissement" by Jean Cocteau translated from the French," Back Roads, issue 8, 1976, pp.28,79
  • "Contributors' Notes," Poetry Northwest, 1975, p.40
  • "7 madness poems: Torment, The Straitjacket, Hallucinations, For Thai Tran, Your Hair Is Wet with the Fog, Electroshock, and Lost," Kayak 40, 1975, pp.3-6
  • "'Come In,' she said, 'Don't Smoke,'" Center, No. 8 (Nov., 1975), p.56
  • "The Emergency Room," City Miner, Vol. 1, No. 2 (Summer 1976), p.44
  • "the keepsake corporation," Kayak 41 1977, p.44
  • [Contributor's Note], Center, No. 10 (Jul., 1977), p.7
  • "death of the professor," Kayak 47, 1978, p.42
  • "The Deaf Man," Mississippi Review, Vol. 7, No. 1 (1978), p.80
  • "Faulkner," Mississippi Review, Vol. 7, No. 1 (1978), pp.18-19
  • "harvest poem," "the pastor speaks out," Kayak 51, 1979, pp.18-19
  • "the deaf man" and "the amorous poet," Kayak 52, 1979, pp.42-43, pp.42-43
  • "Deep Silence," Mississippi Review Vol. 8, No. 1/2 (Winter/Spring, 1979), p.95
  • "The Land of Cockaigne (after Breughel)," The Massachusetts Review, Vol. 20, No. 4 (Winter, 1979), p.800
  • "Homer," The Massachusetts Review, Vol. 21, No. 3 (Fall, 1980), p.502
  • "death of rimbaud," Kayak 57, 1981, p.13
  • "Faulkner" and "Stalingrad," Soup, No. 2 (Jan., 1981), p.50
  • "the virgin of guadalupe," "The Tailor of Warsaw," "An Old Man," Kayak 58, 1982, pp.33-35
  • "Dear George & Marjorie," correspondence, Kayak 66, 1982, p.53
  • "The Old Man" and "Natty Old Man with a Sweater," Ironwood, Vol. 10, No. 1 (19) (Apr., 1982), pp.78-79
  • "the scotchman in the fillmore," Kayak 62, 1983, p.65
  • "Where the Last Huts Are," Soup, No. 3 (Jan., 1983), p.39
  • "Snow," Ironwood, Vol. 12, No. 2 (24) (Oct., 1984), pp.163-165
  • "The Birds of Arles," "Death of a Son," "A Junkie with a Flute in the Rain," "Small Life History," "The Strait Jacket," "Waldo," "In Opposition to Redevelopment," "The Bear" Haight Ashbury Literary Journal, Vol. 6, No. 1 (1992): Featuring David Fisher, pp. 8-9

References

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  1. ^ https://searcharchives.library.gwu.edu/repositories/2/digital_objects/15675 Grace Cavalieri wrote: "David Fisher — Winner of the William Carlos Williams award. One of the best young poets alive but he can't stay out of mental hospitals."
  2. ^ Fisher, David (1960s (placeholder)). "placeholder". The Archive. placeholder (placeholder). {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  3. ^ a b c "David Fisher, Yale Graduate, Wed Yesterday". The Sunday News of Ridgewood, NJ. 27 August 1967. Archived from the original on 15 March 2024. Retrieved 12 April 2025.
  4. ^ a b c "David Fisher". littleredtree.com. Retrieved 13 April 2025.
  5. ^ a b Fisher, David (2012). I Hear Always the Dogs on the Hospital Roof: New and Collected Poems (1st ed.). New London, CT: Little Red Tree Pub. p. 228. ISBN 978-1-935656-17-3.
  6. ^ "David Fisher Obituary (2015) - San Francisco, CA - San Francisco Chronicle". Legacy.com. Retrieved 24 June 2024.
  7. ^ Fisher, David (1975). The Book of Madness (1st ed.). Gallimaufry. ISBN 978-0918222169.
  8. ^ "Paul Mariah". The Poetry Foundation. Retrieved 13 April 2025.
  9. ^ https://searcharchives.library.gwu.edu/repositories/2/digital_objects/15675 Fisher "speaks 9 languages"
  10. ^ Statement about translation, Soup, No. 3 (Jan., 1983), p.39
  11. ^ "Literature Fellowships". www.arts.gov. Retrieved 13 April 2025.
  12. ^ "William Meredith Foundation & Center for the Arts - Projects".
  13. ^ Fisher, David (2012). I Hear Always the Dogs on the Hospital Roof: New and Collected Poems (1st ed.). New London, CT: Little Red Tree Pub. p. 228. ISBN 978-1-935656-17-3.

    "One great thing about David Fisher's poems—you must read them. Another great thing is—then you must read them again. Of few poets can this be said."
  14. ^ Fisher, David (1975). The Book of Madness (1st ed.). Gallimaufry. ISBN 978-0918222169.

    "I've been reading and re-reading Teachings with pleasure, fascination, and admiration. And now The Book of Madness—clearly more penetrating, more troubling, and at once more capsized and more masterful."
  15. ^ Fisher, David (2012). I Hear Always the Dogs on the Hospital Roof: New and Collected Poems (1st ed.). New London, CT: Little Red Tree Pub. p. 228. ISBN 978-1-935656-17-3.

    "The poems are direct and beautiful, and only afterwards terrifying: you find you have confronted things you might not have had the heart to confront in yourself and the world without this strong and gentle talent to invite you."
  16. ^ Fisher, David (2012). I Hear Always the Dogs on the Hospital Roof: New and Collected Poems (1st ed.). New London, CT: Little Red Tree Pub. p. 228. ISBN 978-1-935656-17-3.

    "' . . . you will find me, love, in the streets'—this is the note and the scale and the image of those moving poems: the image that may save us who are now so profoundly endangered. For God's sake, read these poems."
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