"Rudolph John Chauncey Fisher"(1897-1934)

Was born in Washington D.C.,to the Reverend John W.and Glendora Williamson Fisher.He was the youngest of three children,with and older brother,Joseph,and older sister Pearl.In 1903 the family moved to New York,by 1905 that had resettled in Providence Rhode Island.Rudolph attended public schools in Providence and graduated from Classical High School with high honors.By the end of his senior year,his interest in both literature and science was established.This was evident throughout his undergraduate career at Brown University (1915-1919).He was elected to Phi Beta Kappa and other honorary societies;he won prizes for performance in his German classes,for public speaking,and for his work in rhetoric and English composition.During his senior year he was elected a commencement-day speaker,and using as his subject the emancipation of science,Rudolph attempted to argue for the compatibility of science and religion.In two stories published late in his career,"John Archer Nose"and "The City Refuge,"was submitted to Atlantic Monthly during the spring of his senior year;it was published the following year.Rudolph graduated with the high honors from medical school in 1924,intended for a year at Freedman's Hospital,and won a research fellowship,which supported him from September 1925 to October 1927.In 1926 his lengthy story "High Yaller"won the Amy Spingarn Prize for fiction.In just two short years he had distinguished himself in the study of medicine and in the writing of short fiction.While his fiction writing continued steadily,Rudolph set up practice as a roentgenologist,working at various New York City Hospitals before moving into private practice at his home in Jamaica,Long Island.He was among the few who practiced in the field of x-ray technology and among the very few African Americans who practiced the specialty between 1920 and 1940.By 1924 he met Jane Rider,a lively and intelligent grade school teacher in Washington.They married within.a year and a half of meeting,and by 1926, a son,Hugh,was born.Rudolph promptly and jokingly nicknamed him "the New Negro,"the popular term that characterized the pride and assertiveness of many during that period.Music was always vitally important to Rudolph Fisher and his work.By 1919 met and befriended Paul Robeson,then a student at Rutgers.With Paul singing and Rudolph playing the piano and arranging,they toured the East Coast,hoping to raise money for tuition.Later,while a research fellow,Rudolph helped shape some of the skits.Rudolph and Jane with friends,often visited Harlem cabarets,speakeasies,and nightclubs.His observations on racially integrated audiences in Harlem and the rage for jazz are wryly presented in his essay "The Caucasian Storms Harlem."In his fiction he was always sensitive to the of music as more than backdrop or narcotic.He experimented with interesting ways to make the music an essential ingredient in the story.There are fine examples of this in "Common Meter"and" "Miss Cynthie"and in the long masquerade ball scene in the Walls of Jericho (1928).In March,October,and December 1934,Rudolph underwent surgeries for a stomach disorder.He died at Edgecombe Sanitarium in New York City.A first lieutenant in the reserve medical corps of the 369th Infantry,Rudolph was buried three days later with members of the detachment in attendance.