May Isabel Fisk
{{Short description|American monologist and writer}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=November 2021}}{{Use American English|date=November 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name = May Isabel Fisk
| image = May Isabel Fisk - The eternal feminine.jpg
| caption = Fisk {{circa|1911}}
| other_names = May Isabel Campbell-Johnston
| birth_name = May Isabel Taylor
| birth_date = May 22, 1872
| birth_place = New York City, New York, U.S.
| death_date = {{Death year and age|1955|1872}}
| death_place = Paddington, London, U.K.
| nationality = American
British
| occupation = Monologist, writer
| spouse = {{plainlist|
- {{marriage|Clinton Bowen Fisk|1894|1909|end=death}}
- {{marriage|Malcolm Campbell-Johnston|1922|1938|end=death}}
}}
}}
May Isabel Fisk (born Taylor, later Campbell-Johnston; May 22, 1872{{snd}}1955) was an American monologist and writer. Known for her humor in her writing as well as performance, she was a contemporary and friend of Mark Twain, who called her "the only woman humorist in America". She lived in Britain for some years circa 1922 but returned to the United States in 1938.
Early life and education
May Isabel Taylor was born on May 22, 1872,{{cite web |title=1900 US Census: Borough of Manhattan, New York City |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6SWQ-GWB?i=21&cc=1325221&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AMSKV-5QJ |website=FamilySearch |publisher=National Archives and Records Administration |access-date=25 November 2021 |location=Washington, D.C. |page=11B |date=June 12, 1900 |id=NARA microfilm publication T623, roll #1115, lines 85-86}}{{subscription required}}{{#tag:ref|Birth date is stated as May 22, 1885, in a 1976 biographical dictionary of authors and as 1890 in a 1978 publication.{{Cite book|title=Who Was Who among North American authors, 1921–1939|year=1976|publisher=Gale|oclc=607723710|page=273}}{{Cite book|title=Who Was Who among English and European authors, 1931–1949|publisher=Gale|year=1978|isbn=978-0-8103-0040-8|volume=1|pages=271–272|oclc=3870691}} However, her marriage record shows she married in 1894.{{cite news |title=Week in Society |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/89504815/new-york-tribune/ |access-date=25 November 2021 |work=New-York Tribune |date=January 28, 1894 |location=New York City |page=7 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{cite web |title=New York City Marriage Records, 1829-1940: May Taylor/Clinton Fisk |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:24H6-PGM |website=FamilySearch |publisher=New York City Municipal Archives |access-date=25 November 2021 |location=New York City |date=January 27, 1894 |id=microfilm #1439743}}{{subscription required}} Given that the 1976 birth date would have made her nine years old and the 1978 birth date would have made her four years old, the census date has been used. Note that when she died in 1955 her age was given as 83 which would give a birth year about 1872|group="Notes"}} in New York City, to Isabelle (Gray) and William Willard Taylor. She attended the Sylvanus Reed school in New York and studied voice with a teacher named Toriani in Paris.{{cite news|date=December 19, 1903|title=Literary Notes|page=14|work=The Pittsburgh Press|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/89488419/literary-notes/|via=newspapers.com}}
Career
Fisk wrote "six books of comic monologues, two books of fiction, several plays, and numerous short stories".{{sfn|Hans|2010|p=129}} Her monologues generally concerned "society women" who did not treat those around them with respect.{{sfn|Gale|2007|p=298}} She wrote at least 60.{{sfn|Hans|2010|p=131}} Some were written in dialect.{{sfn|Hans|2010|p=131}} In addition to her written work, Fisk also performed on the vaudeville stage.{{sfn|Hans|2010|p=129}}
Critic Maggie B. Gale, comparing Fisk to Beatrice Herford, argues that both adopted an "anthropological perspective" on "social types" of the time.{{sfn|Gale|2007|pp=297–298}} Julia Hans argues that "Fisk expresses women's discontent through a mask of humor at a time when popular writers idealized feminine felicity and passivity".{{sfn|Hans|2010|p=130}}
According to Mark Twain, a friend of hers,{{sfn|Hans|2010|p=129}} Fisk was the "only woman humorist in America".{{cite news|title=May Isabel Fisk to Marry Londoner|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/89488321/may-isabel-fisk-to-marry-londoner/|date=August 21, 1922|work=Asheville Citizen-Times|page=4|via=newspapers.com}} She said she began writing humor because she didn't want to laugh alone. Fisk said, "Women are so funny because they take trivial things so seriously and because they are so unconsciously humorous".{{cite journal |last1=Notman |first1=Otis |title=Talks with Writers of Books |journal=The New York Times Saturday Review of Books |date=April 13, 1907 |pages=244–245 |url=https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=mdp.39015079607738&view=1up&seq=256&skin=2021&size=125&q1=fisk |location=New York City}}
Personal life
May Taylor married Clinton Bowen Fisk on January 27, 1894. Her husband was the son of Clinton B. Fisk, who endowed Fisk University. Clinton Jr. worked as a newspaper editor and theatrical manager until his death in 1909.{{cite news|date=November 29, 1909|title=Clinton B. Fisk Dead|page=2|work=The Baltimore Sun|location=Baltimore, Maryland|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/89515621/the-baltimore-sun/|access-date=25 November 2021|via=Newspapers.com}} The couple had one child, Clinton B. Fisk, who later went by the name of Clinton Gray-Fisk, and became a music critic and animal rights activist.{{cite web|date=October 7, 1938|title=St. AlbansVermont District Manifest Records of Aliens Arriving from Foreign Contiguous Territory: Campbell-Johnston, May Isabel|url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-9981-CS9R-C?i=5865&cc=2185163&personaUrl=%2Fark%3A%2F61903%2F1%3A1%3AQK3R-RR9K|access-date=25 November 2021|website=FamilySearch|publisher=National Archives and Records Administration|location=Washington, D.C.|id=NARA Series M1463, Roll 17}}{{subscription required}}{{cite web|date=July 7, 1904|title=New York City Births, 1846-1909: Clinton Bowen Fisk|url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:2W44-CD1|access-date=25 November 2021|website=FamilySearch|publisher=New York Municipal Archives|location=New York City|id=microfilm #1984241}}{{subscription required}}{{cite news|last1=Barham|first1=Pat|date=September 29, 1960|title=Notebook|page=8|work=The Southwest Wave|location=Los Angeles, California|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/89529330/the-southwest-wave/|access-date=25 November 2021|via=Newspapers.com}} After Clinton Jr.'s death, May married Malcolm Campbell-Johnston on August 1, 1922, becoming a British national.{{#tag:ref|Upon passage of the Expatriation Act of 1907, wives in the US acquired their husband's nationality upon any marriage occurring after March 2, 1907. Though the Cable Act was passed in September 1922, women who had lost their nationality through marrying a foreigner could only repatriate if they applied to be naturalized.{{cite journal |last1=Smith |first1=Marian L. |title='Any woman who is now or may hereafter be married ...': Women and Naturalization, ca. 1802–1940 |journal=Prologue Magazine |date=Summer 1998 |volume=30 |issue=2 |pages=146–153, [https://web.archive.org/web/20201101143403/https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1998/summer/women-and-naturalization-1.html part 1],[https://web.archive.org/web/20201027184906/https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1998/summer/women-and-naturalization-2.html part 2] |publisher=U.S. National Archives and Records Administration |location=Washington, D.C. |issn=0033-1031 |oclc=208742006}}|group="Notes"}}
As of 1922, Fisk lived in London. She came back to the United States in 1938 after the death of her second husband, Malcolm Campbell-Johnston, and settled in California.{{cite news|title=Last Tribune Paid Noted Pasadena Woman at Rites|journal=Metropolitan Pasadena Star-News|date=December 30, 1942|page=3|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/89496980/last-tribute-paid-noted-pasadena-woman/|via=newspapers.com}} In 1943, Fisk began working as a real estate developer of lots in Redondo Beach, California.{{cite news |title=Half Million Building Project to Get Underway |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/89533977/the-redondo-reflex/ |work=The Redondo Reflex |date=April 2, 1943 |location=Redondo, California |page=3 |via=Newspapers.com}} She died in Paddington, London, in 1955.{{cite web |title=England and Wales Death Registration Index 1837-2007 |url=https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVCD-LVG9 |website=FamilySearch |publisher=General Register Office |access-date=25 November 2021 |location=Southport, England |date=1955}}{{subscription required}}
Works
{{Incomplete list|date=November 2021}}
- A Pair of Bellows (1897)
- Monologues (1903){{cite news|title=Some Funny Hits at Feminine Foibles|date=December 6, 1903|page=22|work=Austin American-Statesman|via=newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/89488266/some-funny-hits-at-feminine-foibles/}}{{sfn|Piacentino|2011|p=92}}
- The Talking Woman (1907){{cite news|title=The Talking Woman|work=The Morning Journal-Courier|date=August 31, 1907|page=14|location=New Haven, Connecticut|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/89488534/review-of-the-talking-woman/|via=newspapers.com}}{{sfn|Piacentino|2011|p=92}}
- The Eternal Feminine (1911){{sfn|Piacentino|2011|p=92}}
- Monologues and Duologues (1914){{sfn|Piacentino|2011|p=92}}
Notes
{{reflist|group=Notes}}
References
= Citations =
{{Reflist}}
= Bibliography=
- {{Cite book|last=Gale|first=Maggie B.|chapter=Going solo: an historical perspective on the actress and the monologue|year=2007|title=The Cambridge Companion to the Actress|pages=291–313|editor-last=Gale|editor-first=Maggie B.|publisher=Cambridge University Press|doi=10.1017/ccol9780521846066.016|isbn=978-0-521-84606-6}}
- {{Cite journal|last=Hans|first=Julia|year=2010|title='Landy Goshen! Here comes a whole troop o' them city boarders': May Isabel Fisk's Dialect Monologues|journal=Studies in American Humor|issue=22|pages=129–145|doi=10.2307/42573599 |issn=0095-280X|jstor=42573599}}
- {{Cite journal|last=Piacentino|first=Ed|year=2011|title=Mark Twain and May Isabel Fisk: Parallels in Comic Monologues|journal=Mark Twain Journal|volume=49|issue=1/2 |pages=92–108|issn=0025-3499|jstor=41938064}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fisk, Isabel May}}
Category:19th-century American women writers
Category:20th-century American women writers
Category:19th-century American actresses