Dorothy Canfield Fisher (February 171879-November 91958) was an educational reformer, social activist, and best-selling American author in the early decades of the Twentieth century. She was named by Eleanor Roosevelt as one of the ten most influental women in the United States. Dorothy Canfield brought the Montessori method of child rearing to the United States, presided over the country's first adult education program, and shaped literary tastes by serving as a member of the Book-of-the-Month club selection committee from 1925 to 1951.

Canfield studied Romance languages at Columbia University, and in 1904 was one of the few women of her generation to receive a doctoral degree. She was the first woman to receive an honorary degree from Dartmouth College, and also received honorary degrees from the University of Nebraska, Middlebury, Swarthmore, Smith, Williams, Ohio State University, and the University of Vermont. She spoke five languages fluently, and in addition to writing novels, short stories, memoirs, and educational works, she also forayed into literary criticism and translation.

Born in Lawrence, Kansas on February 171879, her given name at birth was Dorothea Frances Canfield. Her father was James Hulme Canfield , a college professor at the University of Kansas and the University of Nebraska, and president of Ohio State University; her mother, Flavia Camp, was an artist and writer. However, Canfield is most closely associated with Vermont, where she spent her adult life, and which served as the setting for many of her books. In 1907 she married John Redwood Fisher , and together they had two children, a son and a daughter.

Her best-known work today is probably Understood Betsy , a children's book about a little orphaned girl who is sent to live with her cousins in Vermont. Though the book can be read purely for pleasure, it also describes a schoolhouse which is run much in the style of the Montessori method, for which Canfield was one of the first and most vocal advocates.

The Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award , named after her, is a unique award for new American children's books, as the winner is chosen by the vote of child readers.

Bibliography of books by the author

Fiction, as Dorothy Canfield

• Gunhild. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1907.
• The Squirrel-Cage. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1912.
• Hillsboro People. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1915.
• The Bent Twig. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1915.
• The Real Motive. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1916.
• Fellow Captains. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1916. (with Sarah N. Cleghorn ).
• Understood Betsy . New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1917.
• Home Fires in France. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1918.
• The Day of Glory. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1919.
• The Brimming Cup. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1921. Number 2 bestselling book in the United States in 1921.
• Rough-Hewn. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1922.
• Raw Material. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1923.
• The Home-Maker. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1924. Number 10 bestselling book in the United States in 1924.
• Made-to-Order Stories, New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1925.
• Her Son's Wife. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1926.
• The Deepening Stream. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1930.
• Basque People. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1931.
• Bonfire. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1933.
• Fables for Parents. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1937.
• Seasoned Timber. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1939.
• Four-Square. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1949.
• A Harvest of Stories. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1956.

Non-fiction, as Dorothy Canfield Fisher

• A Montessori Mother. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1912.
• A Montessori Manual. Chicago: The Richardson Company, 1913.
• Mothers and Children. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1914.
• Self-Reliance. New York: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1916.
• Why Stop Learning? New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1927.
• Tourists Accommodated. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1932.
• Nothing Ever Happens and How It Does. Boston: The Beacon Press, 1940. (with Sarah N. Cleghorn )
• Tell Me a Story. Lincoln, Nebr.: University Publishing Company, 1940.
• Our Young Folks. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1943.
• American Portraits. New York: Henry Holt and Company, 1946.
• Paul Revere and the Minute Men. New York: Random House, 1950.
• Our Independence and the Constitution. New York: Random House, 1950.
• A Fair World for All. New York: Whittlesey House, 1952.
• Vermont Tradition. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1953.
• Memories of Arlington, Vermont. New York: Dwell, Sloan and Pearce, 1957.
• And Long Remember. New York: Whittlesey House, 1959.

Translations from Italian

• Life of Christ New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1923. By Giovanni Papini , freely translated by Dorothy Canfield. Number 2 bestselling non-fiction book in the United States in 1923 and 1924, number 5 in 1925.
• Work: What It Has Meant to Men through the Ages New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1931. by Adriano Tilgher , translated by Dorothy Canfield.

External links

• Detailed biography
• Homepage for the Dorothy Canfield Fisher award
• e-text of Understood Betsy