Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Dorothy Canfield Fisher was born in 1879 in Kansas. She studied languages at the University of Ohio and went on to complete a PhD at Columbia University in 1904. In 1907 her first novel, Gunhild, was published and she married John Redwood Fisher. They moved to Arlington, Virginia and had a son and a daughter. Though she would live most of her life in Arlington, Canfield Fisher spent some time travelling Europe, including Rome, where she met educator Maria Montessori. She popularised the Montessori philosophy by translating their handbooks into English and writing non-fiction on the subject. During World War I the Canfield Fishers were in France helping the war efforts, aiding veterans and refugees. Dorothy Canfield Fisher wrote over forty books spanning several genres, and was also a literary critic. She died in Arlington in 1958. An article for The Atlantic the following year asserted that Dorothy Canfield Fisher had “one of the most active and serviceable lives in America”.