Discovering Vardis Fisher’s Boise: Reexamining Idaho and the Federal Writers Project

Program Description:  Idaho novelist Vardis Fisher served as state director of the Federal Writers’ Project, a national New Deal program designed to put writers to work during the Great Depression. Meregaglia will discuss Vardis Fisher's Boise, a never-before-published manuscript written by Fisher. Finished in 1939, Fisher never found a sponsor for this guidebook to Boise, so it sat forgotten in the Library of Congress for 80 years. Through Meregaglia’s research on Caxton Printers, he located the manuscript, edited the text, and brought it to publication earlier this year through Rediscovered Books.

Meregaglia will talk about the process of finding the manuscript as well as explaining Fisher’s larger role as Idaho state director of the Federal Writers’ Project.

Bio: Alex Meregaglia is an archivist and assistant professor at Boise State University’s Albertsons Library, where he has worked since 2016. He holds a Master of Arts in history, with a focus on 20th century American history, and a Master of Library Science, specializing in archives and records management, from Indiana University. Vardis Fisher’s Boise is part of a larger research project on Caxton Printers of Caldwell, Idaho. His research is supported, in part, with grants from the Idaho Humanities Council, Boise State’s Osher Institute, and the Bibliographical Society of America.