Erma Johnson Fisk

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.[1]

Biography

Erma Johnson graduated from Vassar College, where she participated in track and field as a long jumper. She married the wealthy financier Bradley Fisk, 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. She was widowed at age 55. She then became a full-time field naturalist and assisted ornithologists in various parts of the Western Hemisphere.[1]

... Mrs. Fisk, at 73, lived alone for five months in a tiny cabin in the foothills of Arizona's Baboquivari Peak, recording and banding birds for The Nature Conservancy.[2]

At the age of 75, she began writing books and soon became a literary celebrity.[1] She traveled the lecture circuit in her VW Rabbit to visit colleges and signings at bookstores and women's clubs.[3]

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.[4]

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.

Selected books
  • The Peacocks of Baboquivari. 1983.[2][5]
  • Parrots' Wood. 1985.[6]
  • A Birdwatcher's Cookbook. 1987.[7]
  • A Cape Cod Journal. 1990.[1][3]

References
  1. Foote, Timothy (28 October 1990). "Life with Feathers". NY Times.
  2. Cantwell, Mary (18 September 1983). "Luckiest Widow in the West". NY Times. (book review of The Peacocks of Baboquivari
  3. "Review of Cape Cod Journal by Erma J. Fisk". Kirkus Reviews. 27 August 1990.
  4. Lazell, James (2005). Island: Fact and Theory in Nature. University of California Press. p. 208. ISBN 9780520931596.
  5. Cruickshank, Helen G. (Spring 1984). "Review of The Peacocks of Baboquivari by Erma Fisk". National Forum. 64 (3): 46.
  6. "Review of Parrot's Wood by Erma J. Fisk". Kirkus Reviews. 12 August 1985.
  7. "Review of A Birdwatcher's Cookbook by Erma J. Fisk". Publishers Weekly. 1 December 1987.
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