{"id":8064,"date":"2018-10-09T12:29:21","date_gmt":"2018-10-09T12:29:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.repeatright.com\/?p=8064"},"modified":"2018-10-11T01:35:11","modified_gmt":"2018-10-11T01:35:11","slug":"fisher-dorothy-canfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.repeatright.com\/engine\/fisher-dorothy-canfield\/","title":{"rendered":"FISHER, Dorothy Canfield"},"content":{"rendered":"
DOROTHY CANFIELD FISHER – Author Quotes<\/div>\n


\n[vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1453315804311{margin-top: -40px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1449531588223-e020d87d-f7dd094f-cf635381-89e5486b-50b8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cA<\/strong> mother is not a person to lean upon, but a person to making leaning unnecessary.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Dorothy Canfield Fisher<\/strong>, American author & activist<\/p>\n

Her Son\u2019s Wife<\/em> (1926) New York, NY: Grosset & Dunlap, 8th printing, November 1927, p. 275<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-ban” add_icon=”true” title=”Misquotes” tab_id=”1449531589281-1a7ccd5f-aa59094f-cf635381-89e5486b-50b8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Misquote note<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Fisher’s original quote has been incorrectly cited by a number of print & Internet sources.<\/p>\n

Canfield’s original verse<\/span>:\u00a0<\/i><\/span> \u201c[A] mother is not a person to lean upon, but a person to making leaning unnecessary.\u201d<\/p>\n

Misquote\/paraphrase<\/span><\/em>:\u00a0\u201cA mother is not someone you lean on. A mother is someone who makes leaning unnecessary<\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong> [Fiction]: \u201c<\/p>\n

How long it took her to learn! She was as sentimental and complacent as ever. She had taken for mother-love her enjoyment of Ralph\u2019s leaning on her. As if these later, savagely admonitory years and her love for Dids had not taught her that a mother is not a person to lean upon, but a person to make leaning unnecessary.<\/span>\u201d (p. 275)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ID” tab_id=”1449531589797-29580b31-8c50094f-cf635381-89e5486b-50b8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

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Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library \u2013 Her Son\u2019s Wife<\/em> (1926|Nov. 1927 edition) Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) No. 918533321<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1453315829087-ce67c619-0fbc5381-89e5486b-50b8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cF<\/strong>reedom is not worth fighting for if it means no more than license for everyone to get as much as he can for himself.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Dorothy Canfield Fisher<\/strong>, American author & activist<\/p>\n

\u201cSeasoned Timber\u201d (1939) in Thus Be It Ever: A Heritage of Freedom<\/em> (anthology), eds. Clara A. Molendyk & Benjamin C. Edwards, New York: Harper & Bros., 1942 edition, p. 362<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1453315829475-7c82a017-1e625381-89e5486b-50b8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong>:<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat he wanted to tell his young listeners was that they must go on from where the old-American zeal for freedom left off; to tell them that freedom is not worth fighting for if it means no more than license for everyone to get as much as he can for himself. And freedom is<\/em> worth fighting for. Because it does mean more than unrestricted grabbing<\/span>.\u201d (p. 362)<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ID” tab_id=”1453315829682-63e8fade-cf4c5381-89e5486b-50b8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

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Source<\/strong><\/em><\/span>:\u00a0Library \u2013 Thus Be It Ever: A Heritage of Freedom<\/em> (1942) Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) No. 1563603<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1453316221301{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1453315828001-b5e2e52e-ea1e5381-89e5486b-50b8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cH<\/strong>e was impelled, by the fatality that hangs over people who have struck a false note, to strike it yet more loudly.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Dorothy Canfield Fisher<\/strong>, American author & activist<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Murder on Jefferson Street\u201d (1936) in The Best Short Stories 1936 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story<\/em>, ed. Edward J. O\u2019Brien, New York, NY:Houghton Mifflin Co., 1936, p. 45<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1453315828385-86abfac4-79bf5381-89e5486b-50b8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Extended excerpt\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0[Fiction – short story]:<\/p>\n

\u201cAt lunch he went out of his way in the cafeteria to sit at the same table with Francis, ostentatiously familiar with him, and after work he let trolley after trolley go by the corner where he waited till Francis arrived. Knowing that he had been punished for being too fresh, he was impelled, by the fatality that hangs over people who have struck a false note, to strike it yet more loudly.<\/span>\u201d (p. 45)<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ID” tab_id=”1453315828572-dac97b48-68e05381-89e5486b-50b8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

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Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Library \u2013 The Best Short Stories 1936 and the Yearbook of the American Short Story<\/em> (1936) Online Computer Library Center (OCLC) No. 13724519<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1449531591105-7edf5f39-feaa094f-cf635381-89e5486b-50b8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cL<\/strong>ibraries\u2026the vessels in which the seed corn for the future is stored.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Dorothy Canfield Fisher<\/strong>, American author & activist<\/p>\n

\u201cLibraries \u2013 The Stronghold of Freedom\u201d (1939) in The Library of Tomorrow: A Symposium<\/em> ed. Emily Miller Danton, Chicago, IL: American Library Association, 1939, p. 27; online via Universal Digital Library & Internet Archive, www.archive.org<\/a><\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1449531591631-43861bc7-da28094f-cf635381-89e5486b-50b8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong> [Essay]:<\/p>\n

\u201cOur fathers\u2019 generation thought na\u00efvely, and so did we in our youth, that the insane wish to burn and crush and destroy those irreplaceable seeds was a forgotten wickedness of the unenlightened dark centuries far behind us. The revelation which comes to us in our late maturity and to our younger generation as they first emerge into adult life, that intellectual freedom is above every other element in human life marked down for savage destruction by the totalitarian state, gives us an electrifying warning to look well to the defenses of our libraries. They are far more than the founders thought, far more even than rich treasure houses of taste, beauty, enjoyment and abstract scientific information \u2013 they are in the last analysis, as the monastic libraries<\/span> of the Dark Ages proved, the vessels in which the seed corn for the future is stored<\/span>.\u201d (p. 27)<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source Link” tab_id=”1449531592891-f39e055b-a66e094f-cf635381-89e5486b-50b8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

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Source link<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: The Library of Tomorrow: A Symposium<\/em> (1939) online via Universal Digital Library & Internet Archive: https:\/\/archive.org\/stream\/libraryoftomorro011512mbp#page\/n41\/mode\/2up<\/a><\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row css=”.vc_custom_1453316221301{margin-top: 0px !important;border-top-width: 0px !important;padding-top: 0px !important;}”][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1453315828001-b5e2e52e-ea1e5381-89e5486b-50b8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cOne of the many things nobody ever tells you about middle age is that it\u2019s such a nice change from being young.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Dorothy Canfield Fisher<\/strong>, American author & activist<\/p>\n

\u201cI am Fifty and it Doesn\u2019t Hurt a Bit\u201d (April 1929) The American Magazine<\/em>, Vol. CVII, No. 4, Springfield, OH: Crowell Publishing Co., p. 84, column 1<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-ban” add_icon=”true” title=”Misquotes” tab_id=”1453315828190-b4d7b461-d58d5381-89e5486b-50b8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Misattribution note<\/em><\/strong><\/span>:\u00a0A few sources have mistakenly attributed the quote to author & publisher William Feather<\/strong><\/span>. We could find no evidence that Feather wrote the words, and Canfield Fisher has been widely attributed as the source of the quote following the 1929 publication of her original essay.<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1453315828385-86abfac4-79bf5381-89e5486b-50b8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Extended excerpt <\/em><\/strong>[Essay]:<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the many things which nobody (especially the poets) ever tells you about being middle- aged is that it is such a nice change from being young. Honestly, I mean it. Why not admit it? One of the traits of human nature about which there is absolute unanimity of opinion is its love for change, its never-failing tendency to get tired of what it has had and be ready for something new.\u201d (p. 84, column 1)<\/p>\n

Source note<\/em><\/strong>: Fisher also added: \u201cHere are the pleasures of middle age, of which nobody breathes a word to you beforehand. The deliciousness of outgrowing that neuralgia of youthful pain at being surpassed in anything. The serenity of pleasure taken in other people\u2019s accomplishments unspoiled by the aching comparison of them with our own.\u201d<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source ID” tab_id=”1453315828572-dac97b48-68e05381-89e5486b-50b8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

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Source<\/em><\/strong><\/span>: Editor\u2019s copy – \u201cI am Fifty and it Doesn\u2019t Hurt a Bit\u201d (April 1929) The American Magazine<\/em>, Vol. CVII<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/2″][vc_tta_tabs style=”modern” shape=”square” active_section=”1″][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-book” add_icon=”true” title=”Citation” tab_id=”1449531591105-7edf5f39-feaa094f-cf635381-89e5486b-50b8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

\u201cYou are dipped up from the great river of consciousness, and death only pours you back.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

~Dorothy Canfield Fisher<\/strong>, American author & activist<\/p>\n

The Bent Twig<\/em> (October 1915) New York, NY: Grosset & Dunlap, p. 345; online via University of California & Google Books, books.google.com<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-plus-circle” add_icon=”true” title=”Context” tab_id=”1449531591631-43861bc7-da28094f-cf635381-89e5486b-50b8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

Extended excerpt<\/em><\/strong> [Fiction]:<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I haven\u2019t any personal experience with death in my immediate circle either,\u201d said Sylvia. \u201cBut I wasn\u2019t brought up with the usual cult of the awfulness of it. Father was always anxious that we children should feel it something as natural as breathing \u2013 you are dipped up from the great river of consciousness, and death only pours you back<\/span>. If you\u2019ve been worth living, there are more elements of fineness in humanity.\u201d (p. 345)<\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][vc_tta_section i_icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-search” add_icon=”true” title=”Source Link” tab_id=”1449531592891-f39e055b-a66e094f-cf635381-89e5486b-50b8″][vc_column_text css_animation=”none”]\n

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Source link<\/em><\/strong><\/span>:\u00a0The Bent Twig<\/em> (1915) online via Google Books: https:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=fWdKAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA345&dq=You+are+dipped+up+from+the+great+river+of+consciousness,+and+death+only+pours <\/a><\/p>\n[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_tta_section][\/vc_tta_tabs][\/vc_column][\/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]\n

Resources<\/h4>\n[\/vc_column_text][vc_column_text css_animation=”none” el_class=”Wrapper-Author-Resources”]Learn more about Dorothy Canfield Fisher\u00a0<\/strong><\/span>| Here are a few good places to start –<\/p>\n