AMOS KIDDER FISKE

Background

Amos Kidder Fiske was born in Whitefield, New Hampshire, the son of Henry and Lucinda (Keyes) Fiske. His father’s ancestors came to Massachusetts from England about the middle of the seventeenth century. During his childhood, it was necessary for him to work both on his parents’ farm and in a cotton-mill in a near-by village.

Education

Left an orphan at sixteen, he continued working as a factory hand, but determined to set aside enough money to launch him on his way through school. During 1860-61 he attended the Appleton Academy at New Ipswich, and in 1862, still having to earn his livelihood, he entered Harvard. He was graduated in 1866, with the highest honors.

Career

Soon afterward he went to New York. There he taught for a year, and then studied law for a year. One of the lawyers in the office where he studied was George Ticknor Curtis, who was busy at that time writing his life of Daniel Webster. Young Fiske, it seems, had a large hand in the more detailed aspects of that biography but no mention of him occurs in the preface.

In 1867, he began his fifteen years’ connection with the Annual Cyclopccdia. In 1870, he was married to Caroline Child of Cambridge, sister of Francis J. Child of Harvard.

From 1874 to 1877 he was an editor of the Boston Globe, but with that exception, he was nearly all of the time from 1869 to T919 on the editorial staff of various New York newspapers—notably with the Times, 1869-71, 1878-97, and with the Journal of Commerce, 1902-19. In 1888 when his son, Philip Sidney, was old enough to enter Harvard, his family removed to Cambridge. His two daughters went to Radcliffe.

From 1890 to 1914 he published nine books. The first of these, Midnight Talks at the Club, is a series of genial, wise traveling abroad the next year he was called to be librarian and professor of North-European languages at Cornell University. Here his constructive services in the development of the institution were notable. In 1880 he married Jennie McGraw of Ithaca. At her death in 1881 he inherited a large fortune. Two years later he severed his connection with the university and passed the remaining years of his life in Europe.

From 1883 to 1886 he rented the Villa Forini in the eastern quarter of Florence, a mansion previously occupied by the American minister, George P. Marsh. In 1892 he purchased and remodeled the Villa Landor, well above Florence, and just under Fiesole. In these attractive and historic villas he dispensed a generous but unassuming hospitality and devoted himself to intellectual pursuits.

The scope of Fiske’s interests is suggested by his literary activities and his honorary connections. He was an early member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, an honorary member of the National Icelandic Literary Society, and corresponding member of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquities, Copenhagen.

His writings were numerous and varied, including much admirable verse, reprints from which were published in the three volumes of the Memorials (post).

He died in 1904 and was interred by the side of his wife in the memorial chapel which was constructed by the trustees of Cornell in the university grounds.

Achievements

• He was given special distinction in 1892 by King Humbert I of Italy, and in 1902 by Christian IX of Denmark, chiefly in recognition of the wide extent of his literary achievements. In addition to his valuable book collections which he presented to Cornell, relating to Dante, Petrarch, Icelandic history and literature, and the Rhaeto-Romanic language, he gave a fund of more than half a million dollars for the uses and purposes of the library.

Works

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  • The Myths of Israel, the Ancient Book of Genesis With the and Book of Its With Analysis and Explanation of Its Composition (Classic Reprint)

    (Modern critical research into the sources and character o...)

  • The Modern Bank: A Description of Its Functions and Methods and a Brief Account of the Development and Present Systems of Banking (Classic Reprint)

    (The main purpose of this volume is not to set forth or di...)

  • The Great Epic of Israel the Web of Myth, Legend, History, Law, Oracle, Wisdom and Poetry of the Ancient Hebrews (Classic Reprint)

    (It is the purpose of this volume to encourage a revival o...)

  • Beyond the Bourn: Reports of a Traveller Returned from "The Undiscovered Country,"

    (This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)

  • The West Indies: A history of the islands of the West Indian archipelago, together with an account of their physical characteristics, natural resources, and present condition

    (This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 18...)

Membership

He was an early member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters, an honorary member of the National Icelandic Literary Society, and corresponding member of the Royal Society of Northern Antiquities, Copenhagen.

Interests

• He was an assiduous collector of rare and perfect book collections, a romantic crusader for a reformed and modernized Egyptian alphabet, a zealous propagandist for the game of chess, and a lifelong devotee to the advancement of Icelandic civilization.

Connections

In 1870, he was married to Caroline Child of Cambridge, sister of Francis J. Child of Harvard.

In 1880 he married Jennie McGraw of Ithaca.

Father:

Henry Fiske

Mother:

Lucinda (Keyes) Fiske

1st wife:

Caroline Child

2nd wife:

Jennie McGraw

Son:

Philip Sidney