Career
In 1951, he was named by Library Journal to the Library Hall of Fame. Born in Burlington, Vermont, Fletcher grew up in Winchester, Massachusetts. After working as the Winchester town librarian in his teens, he got a job at the Boston Athenaeum when he was 18, working there under William Frederick Poole for five years.
After a decade and a half of working at several other libraries in Massachusetts and Connecticut, Fletcher was hired by Amherst in November 1883.
Fletcher served as the editor of four supplements (1893, 1897, 1903, and 1908) of the as well as of the 1893 and 1901 editions of the American Library Association Index to General Literature.