Historian; born in
Hartford, Conn., March 31, 1842; graduated at Harvard in 1863 and at its Law School in 1865, but never practised; has since been identified with that institution as instructor, lecturer, assistant librarian, and overseer.
He has also been
Professor of American History in Washington University,
St. Louis, and is a wellknown lecturer on historical themes.
He was the son of
Edmund Brewster Green, of
Smyrna, Del., and Mary Fiske Bound, of
Middletown, Conn. In 1852
his father died and three years later his mother married
Edwin W. Stoughton, of New York.
The same year the boy, whose name was
Edmund Fiske Green, assumed the name of
John Fiske, which was that of his maternal grandfather.
Professor Fiske's works fall under two heads: philosophical, including the
Cosmic Philosophy;
Idea of God, etc.; and historical, including
The critical period of American history;
Civil government in the United States;
The War of Independence;
The American Revolution;
The beginnings of New England;
The discovery of America;
Old Virginia and her natives.
His three essays,
The federal Union (q. v.);
The town-meeting; and
Manifest destiny, were published in one volume under the title of
American political ideas from the stand-point of universal history.
With
James Grant Wilson he edited
Appleton's Cyclopaedia of American biography.
He died at
Gloucester, Mass., July 4, 1901.
