Erma Johnson Fisk
{{short description|Nature writer}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Erma Johnson Fisk
| image =
| caption =
| othername = "Jonnie" Fisk
| birth_name = Erma Johnson
| birth_date = 5 August 1905
| birth_place =
| death_date = 11 January 1990
| death_place =
| burial_place =
| nationality =
| alma_mater = Vassar College
| occupation = Nature writer and amateur ornithologist
| years_active =
| known_for =
| spouse = Bradley Fisk
| children = Three
| mother =
| father =
}}
Erma Johnson "Jonnie" Fisk (5 August 1905 – 11 January 1990) was a nature writer and amateur ornithologist, noted for her study of the least tern.{{cite news|author=Foote, Timothy|authorlink=Timothy Foote|newspaper=NY Times|title=Life with Feathers|date=28 October 1990|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/10/28/books/life-with-feathers.html}}
Biography
Erma Johnson graduated from Vassar College, where she participated in track and field as a long jumper. On August 7, 1926, she married the wealthy financier Bradley Fisk,{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t_fOAAAAMAAJ&dq=Erma+Johnson+Fisk&pg=PA60 |title=Harvard Alumni Bulletin |date=1926 |language=en}} lived in Buffalo, New York, and became the mother of three children. When Bradley Fisk was United States Assistant Secretary of Commerce from 1957 to 1961 in the Eisenhower administration, Erma J. Fisk was a hostess in Washington D.C.
After she was widowed at age 55, she became a full-time field naturalist and assisted ornithologists in various parts of the Western Hemisphere. When Fisk was 73, she briefly worked with the Nature Conservancy in Baboquivari Peak, Arizona.{{cite news|author=Cantwell, Mary|authorlink=Mary Cantwell|title=Luckiest Widow in the West|date=18 September 1983|newspaper=NY Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/09/18/books/luckiest-widow-in-the-west.html}} (book review of The Peacocks of Baboquivari
At the age of 75, she began writing books and soon became a literary celebrity. She traveled the lecture circuit in her Volkswagen Rabbit to visit colleges and attend signings at bookstores and women's clubs.{{cite web|title=Review of Cape Cod Journal by Erma J. Fisk|date=27 August 1990|website=Kirkus Reviews|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/erma-j-fisk-2/a-cape-cod-journal/}}
In 1952, the Fisks first visited Guana Island in the British Virgin Islands and had a cottage built there. In 1952, Jonnie Fisk started sending ornithological reports from Guana Island to the ornithologist James Bond in Philadelphia.{{cite book|author=Lazell, James|title=Island: Fact and Theory in Nature|year=2005|publisher=University of California Press|page=208|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1aaOGjO63UgC&pg=PA208|isbn=9780520931596}}
Family
The three children of Bradley and Erma Fisk were Bradley Jr. (1927–1997), Irving Lester (1928–1984), and Amanda (born 1936). The poet and radio personality Molly Fisk is a granddaughter of Erma J. Fisk.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}}
Selected books
- {{cite book|title=The Peacocks of Baboquivari|year=1983}}{{cite journal|author=Cruickshank, Helen G.|authorlink=Helen G. Cruickshank|title=Review of The Peacocks of Baboquivari by Erma Fisk|journal=National Forum|volume=64|issue=3|page=46|date=Spring 1984|url=https://www.proquest.com/openview/e23e886186c5e859afc1637004e8fc7f/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1820941}}
- {{cite book|title=Parrots' Wood|year=1985}}{{cite web|title=Review of Parrot's Wood by Erma J. Fisk|date=12 August 1985|website=Kirkus Reviews|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/erma-j-fisk/parrots-wood/}}
- {{cite book|title=A Birdwatcher's Cookbook|year=1987}}{{cite journal|title=Review of A Birdwatcher's Cookbook by Erma J. Fisk|journal=Publishers Weekly|date=1 December 1987|url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0-393-02502-6}}
- {{cite book|title=A Cape Cod Journal|year=1990}}
References
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Category:Vassar College alumni
Category:American nature writers