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Overview

Rudolph Fisher (May 9, 1897 Washington, DC - December 26, 1934) was an African-American physician, radiologist, novelist, short story writer, dramatist, musician, and orator. His parents were John Wesley Fisher, a clergyman, and Glendora Williamson. Fisher had one son.

Early Life

Born in Washington, DC in the late nineteenth century, Fisher grew up in Providence, Rhode Island. Fisher was one of three children born to parents Reverend John Wesley Fisher and Glendora Fisher.

School and Career

Fisher graduated from Classical High School in 1915 with honors and further went to Brown university where he studied English and Biology. He later attended medical school at Howard University in Washington D.C, graduating in 1924. After graduating from Brown, Fisher took part in a Manhattan based program titled "Four Negro Commencement Speakers" where he read his Brown commencement speech "The emancipation of Science." At Howard Medical School, he studied Roentgenology. During his internship at Freedman's Hope hospital was when Fisher wrote his first short story, "The City of Refuge". He earned his Bachelor of Arts from Brown in 1919, where he delivered the valedictory address, and received a Master of Arts a year later. He came to New York City in 1925 to take up a fellowship at College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, during which time he published two scientific articles of his research on treating Bacteriophage viruses with ultraviolet light. After his fellowship ended, he had a private practice on Long Island. In 1930, Fisher became superintendent of International Hospital, a black-owned private hospital on Seventh Avenue in Harlem, but the hospital went bankrupt in October 1931.Fisher died after unsuccessful abdominal surgery in 1934 at the age of 37. buried in Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City.

Novels and short stories:

Fisher's first novel "Walls of Jericho" came out in 1928. He was inspired by a friend's challenge to write this novel treating both the upper and lower classes of black Harlem equally. This novel presents a vision that African American men and women can both get ahead in life if they come together and form a bond against centuries of oppression. He then went on in 1932 to write "The Conjure Man Dies", the first novel with a black detective as well as the first detective novel with only black characters. This novel was also set in Harlem. His novel was publicized by Convici-Friede making him the second African American to write a detective novel in the United States. He also wrote two short stories, the first of the two "City of Refuge", appeared in the Atlantic Monthly of February 1925, and the second, "Vestiges" both appeared in Alain Locke's anthology. These two short stories accurately depicted life and events during the Harlem Renaissance. Fisher's last published work, "Miss Cynthie" appeared in story magazine in 1933. It was a short story about a Southern migrant grandmother, Miss Cynthie. She arrived in Harlem to meet her successful grandson. She was a hard-working and religious woman who had raised her grandson in the South. She expected him to have established himself as a member of the black professional society. What she did not know was that his success emerged from being an entertainer in a theater which she viewed to be a sinful place. Although she is against what he does, she comes to realize that he has developed into an honest young man. Other short stories written by Rudolph Fisher are, High Yaller in 1926, Blades of Steel in 1927, Ringtail, The South still lingers on, Fire by night, The promise land The Caucasian storms Harlem in 1927 and Common meter in 1930.

As Oliver Henry states, "Fisher writes about black people in a manner which expresses their kinship with other peoples. He underscores and highlights the fundamental human condition of black Americans. … He captures the historically induced unique qualities of black people; but, and perhaps even more importantly, he writes of them basically as people.”