Vardis Fisher Bibliography

Poems, Essays, and Short Stories

  1. Sonnets to an Imaginary Madonna (1927)
  2. The Neurotic Nightingale (1935)
  3. April: A Fable of Love (1937)
  4. Oddessy of a Hero (1937)
  5. God or Caesar? The Writing of Fiction for Beginners (1953)
  6. Love and Death (1959)
  7. Thomas Wolfe As I Knew Him, And Other Essays (1963)


The Vridar Hunter Tetrology
This autobiographical series chronicles Fisher's childhood through early adulthood.
  1. In Tragic Life (1932)
  2. Passions Spin The Plot (1934)
  3. We Are Betrayed (1935)
  4. No Villian Need Be (1936)


Western Non-Fiction
These books were written during Fisher's tenure as director of the Idaho WPA Writer's Project, with the exception of the biography of Meriwether Lewis and mining camps collaboration with his third wife, Opal Laurel Holmes.
  1. Idaho: A Guide in Word and Picture
  2. Idaho Encyclopedia (1938)
  3. Idaho Lore (1939)
  4. Idaho: A guide in Word and Picture (Revised, 1950)
  5. Suicide or Murder? The Strange Death of Governor Meriwether Lewis (1962)
  6. Gold Rushes and Mining Camps of the Early American West (1968, Opal Laurel Holmes, co-author).


Western Historical Novels
Fisher received much acclaim for his western historical novels.
  1. Toilers of the Hills (1928)
  2. Dark Bridwell (1931) Also titled The Wild Ones in later printings.
  3. Forgive Us Our Virtues (1938)
  4. Children of God (1939)
  5. City of Illusion (1941)
  6. The Mothers (1943)
  7. Pemmican: A Novel of the Hudson's Bay Company (1956)
  8. Tale of Valor (1958)
  9. Mountain Man (1965)


The Testament Of Man Series
This monumental 12-volume series of novels depicts the history of humans from cave to civilization.
  1. Darkness and the Deep (1943)
  2. The Golden Rooms (1944)
  3. Intimations of Eve (1946)
  4. Adam and the Serpent (1947)
  5. The Divine Passion (1948)
  6. The Valley of Vision (1952)
  7. The Island of the Innocent(1952)
  8. Jesus Came Again; A Parable (1956)
  9. A Goat for Azazel (1956)
  10. Peace like a river: A novel of Christian asceticism (1957)
  11. My Holy Satan: A Novel of Christian Twilight (1960)
  12. Orphans In Gesthemane * (1960)
* Orphans in Gesthemane was a rather large book, and was later broken into Part 1: For Passion, For Heaven and Part 2: The Great Confession (1960)