Keeping Fires Night and Day

Book excerpt: When her best-selling novels made her the chief breadwinner in her marriage, her husband, John Fisher, assumed the role of secretary and editor of her work. Fluent in five languages, Dorothy Canfield Fisher founded a Braille press in France and introduced the educational methods of Dr. Maria Montessori to the United States. She became a pioneering advocate of adult education and served as the first woman on the Vermont Board of Education. In letters to friends, fans, and colleagues, Fisher discussed her homelife, her work, and the world around her. Her passions and concerns - revealed in her correspondence with wit and poignancy - include the "New Woman" and the suffrage movement, racial discrimination and the emergence of the NAACP the development of a national education system, two world wars, the depression, and the influence of book clubs in the literary marketplace.