FISKE
FISKE
of the Hartford, Conn., Courant, 1867; made the
four uf Egypt, Palestine and Syria, 1867-08, and
vvas professor of North European languages and
chief librarian, Cornell university, 1868-83. He
made a remarkable collection of Icelandic books,
was a writer and lecturer on civil service reform,
a member of the American social science associa-
tion and a contributor to Swedish, Icelandic and
German periodicals. He was a contestant in the
chess tournament of 18rj7; edited with Paul Mor-
phy the American Chess Monthly, 1857-60; com-
piled " Book of the American Chess Congress
(1839); and edited the "Ten Year Book of
Cornell " (^1888), and nmnerous bibliographical
publications for the imi versify. He ^Iso made
an extended Petrarch book collection. He was
married in 1880 to Jennie McGraw.who was born
in Dryden, N.Y., in September, 1840; acquired
her education in the schools at Canandaigua antl
in Westchester county. NY., and by several
trips to Europe; and died in 1881, bequeathing
the bulk of her estate to Cornell university. Her
will, however, failed to be carried out. As a
memorial to her mother, the daughter of John
Southworth, she gave §30,000 for the building,
support and maintenance of a public librarj' in
the village of Dryden, which was called the
Southworth library. Professor Fiske received
the degree of A.M. from Hamilton in 18.56, and
that of Ph.D. from the University of Upsala in
1852. In 1883 he resigned from Cornell and made
his permanent residence in Florence, Italy. He
made (1892-96) the large^it known collection of
books relating to Dante (7000 vols.) which he
presented to Cornell university, and printed at
Florence a series of "Bibliographical Notices."
He published (1893-98) a great number of edu-
cational and other tracts intended to bring about
the application of a modifie<:l Latin alphabet to
the spoken Arabic dialect of Eg}-pt and the use
of the spoken language as a literary medium.
FISKE, Harrison Qrey , editor and playwright, w;is Ixirn in Harrison, Westchester count)', N. Y., July 30, lS61;son of Lyman and Jane M. (Durfee) Fiske; grandson of William H. and Lois (Wales) Fiske; and a descendant of the Rev. Jolm Fiske, who was born in Suffolk county, England, in 1619, and immigrated to America, settling in Water- town, Mass., in 1643. He was prepared for col- lege under private tutors and entered the University of the city of New York with the class of 1881, but left after his sophomore year, and in 1879 entered journalism as editor and publisher of the Neic York Dramatic Mirror. He was sec- retary of the Actors" fund of America, 1885-88: tnLstee of the same from 1894; secretary of the Goethe society of New York city. 1890-94; and director of the American dramati.st's club. 1K07- 98 On March 19 1890, he was married to Marv
Augusta, daughter of Thomas Davey of Detroit,
Mich. She had staiTed for several years under
the name Minnie Maddern, and afterward became
well known as Minnie Maddern Fiske. Mr. Fiske
is the author of the following plays: Fontenelle
(1892); Hester Crewe (1893); The District Attorney
(1895); The Privateer (1897); 3Iarie Deloche (1895);
,1 Whitf Pink (1895); and Divorrons (1896); the
last thriiMi named being adaptations.
FISKE, John, historian, was born in Hartford, Comi. , March 30, 1842; .son of Edmund Brevi-ster and Mary Fiske (Boxmd ) Green; grandson of Hum- phreys and Hannah (Heaton) Green of Delaware, and of John and Jlary (Fiske) Bound of Middle- town, Conn. , and a descendant from Phineas Fiske of Fressingfield, Suf- folk, England, who came to America in 1641 and settled in Wenham, Mass. His name was originally Edmund Fiske Green, and in 1855, on the marriage of his wid- owed mother to Ed- win W. .Stoughton, he took the name of his maternal great- grandfather, John Fiske. He
brought up maternal gi-and
mother, who lived at Middletown, Conn., and displayed great precocity as well as diligence in preparing himself for college. He had mastered Euclid, algebra, trigonometry, surveying and navigation at twelve, could read Plato and Herod- otus and had begim German at fifteen, could read Spanish, French. Italian and Portuguese at seventeen, and made a beginning in San.scrit and Hebrew at eighteen, meanwhile continuing an incessant course of reading. He was grad- uated at Harvard in arts in 1863, and in law in 1865, having been admitted to the Suffolk bar in 1864. He was married in 1864 to Abby, daughter of Aaron Brooks of Petersham, Mass. He never practised law, devoting himself to literature, gaining position as an author from the publica- tion of his first article in the Xationnl Quarterly Review in 1861. a review of Buckle's "History of Civilization, " which won for him the consid- eration of editors of both American and English periodicals, and he became a frequent contribu- tor to the leading magazines and reviews. He was university lecturer at Harvard, 1869-71, his subjects being "Positive Philosophy" and the " Doctrine of Evolution." He was instructor in history there, 1^70; assistant librarian. 1872-79; and overseer, 1879-91. He was non-resident lee-
by his (^^y^m/iA/^Mdlo
