Edgecombe, they were part of a residential com-
munity that included many members of the
African-American professional and intellectual
elite. As the writer and educator Katherine Butler
Jones recalls, Fisher, who lived on the 13th floor of
the building, “was a brilliant man, a real genius”
(Boyd, 35). Fisher’s untimely death in 1934 at age
37 was officially attributed to intestinal ailments.
Many scholars have considered that his death was
hastened by his exposure to harmful X-rays
through his work as a roentgenologist in his own
New York City practice, city hospitals, and his pio-
neering research in radiology. David Levering
Lewis characterized Fisher’s demise as “madden-
ingly avoidable” and blamed it on his “exposure to
his own x-ray equipment” (Lewis, 304). Fisher
scholar John McCluskey, whose research on the pi-
oneering physician-writer has involved conversa-
tions with his widow Jane, however, refutes this
notion and suggests that Fisher did not succumb
because of overexposure to X-rays.
Fisher’s passions for literature and for science
prompted him to realize his potential in both fields.
In an August 1927 interview published in Mc-
Clure’s,Fisher declared frankly that his early de-
grees fanned his interests in the arts and in the
sciences. Ultimately, he “studied medicine to heal”
what he referred to as his “fractured ambition.” He
went on to note that his medical degree “saved my
life by permitting me to write both fiction and arti-
cles for literary journals and research reports for
the scientific journals” (Tignor, 87).
One of the most widely published writers of the
era, Fisher published 15 short stories, two novels,
and additional book reviews, research papers, and
essays in leading journals such as The Atlantic
Monthly, THE CRISIS, McClure’s, OPPORTUNITY,
Story,and SURVEYGRAPHIC.In addition, he penned
a stage adaptation of his second novel, THECON-
JURE-MANDIES,that opened at the Lafayette The-
atre in New York City in the spring of 1936.
He soon saw his work published in leading pe-
riodicals of the day, including key journals of the
Harlem Renaissance period such as The Crisis, Op-
portunity,and Survey Graphic and in mainstream
journals such as The Atlantic Monthlyand Mc-
Clure’s.He worked closely with Paul Robeson and
composed many of the musical arrangements for
the Negro spirituals that Robeson performed.
Fisher made his publishing debut with “THE
CITY OFREFUGE,” a notable short story published
in the prestigious Atlantic Monthly.It was later in-
cluded in the Best Short Stories of 1925,edited by
Edward O’Brien, and in THENEWNEGRO,the im-
pressive collection of promising and accomplished
Harlem Renaissance–era writers edited by ALAIN
LOCKE. A second story, “THE SOUTHLINGERS
ON” also was included in The New Negro;it ap-
peared with the new title “Vestiges: Harlem
Sketches.” In 1927 his short story “HIGHYALLER”
won first prize in the contest sponsored by philan-
thropist AMYSPINGARN. At the awards ceremony
held at the Renaissance Casino, located at 138th
Street and Seventh Avenue, Fisher was feted to-
gether with WILLISRICHARDSON, Ruth Shelton,
COUNTEE CULLEN, and LANGSTON HUGHES,
whose work also received recognition and prizes in
the annual contest. This also was the year in which
he published his only essay. “THECAUCASIAN
STORMSHARLEM,” a satiric autobiographical essay
prompted by the exclusion of African Americans
from Harlem clubs, recalled Fisher’s own encoun-
ters with leading writers and artists of the day. The
engaging reflection appeared in the August 1927
issue of AMERICANMERCURY.
KNOPF published THE WALLS OF JERICHO,
Fisher’s first novel, in 1928. Reviewers praised
Fisher for his “undoubted literary knack” and for
the “force and felicity of his expositions and de-
scriptions” of African-American characters and
communities (NYT,5 August 1928, 54). His sec-
ond novel, The Conjure-Man Dies: A Mystery Tale,
was published in 1932 and promptly translated
into French in 1936. A second French edition ap-
peared in 2001. In 1936 Fisher completed a dra-
matic adaptation of the novel as part of the
Federal Theater Project. The three-act play, which
opened in March 1936 and closed in on July 4 of
that year, brought thousands to the LAFAYETTE
THEATREin Harlem. Scholar Eleanor Tignor notes
that some 83,000 people saw the show that was
based on the first non-serialized detective novel by
an African American to feature a black sleuth.
The substantial cast included Lional Monagas in
the role of Dr. John Archer, Irving Ellis as Jinx
Jenkins, Dooley Wilson as Detective Sergeant
Perry Dart, and Fritz Weller as the enigmatic
N’Gana Frimbo, the conjure man.Fisher, Rudolph John Chauncey 165