Willard Fiske

Who was Willard Fiske?

Daniel Willard Fiske was an American librarian and scholar, born on November 11, 1831, at Ellisburg, New York.

Fiske studied at Cazenovia Seminary and started his collegiate studies at Hamilton College in 1847. He joined the Psi Upsilon but was suspended for a student prank at the end of his sophomore year. He was educated at Copenhagen and at Uppsala University. Upon his return to the United States, he acted as a General Secretary to the American Geographical Society and edited the Syracuse Daily Journal.

Upon the opening of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, Fiske was named University librarian and professor in 1868. He made a reputation as an authority on the Northern European languages, and Icelandic language and culture in particular.

In August 1880, he married Jennie McGraw, at the American Legation in Berlin. McGraw was the daughter of deceased timber magnate John McGraw, and had inherited $2.2 million upon his death in 1877. Their marriage was short, and by September 1881 she had died from tuberculosis. Controversy over her will's bequest to Cornell left him involved in the The Great Will Case. Following its resolution in May 1890, he spent much of his remaining years in Italy, and collected manuscripts.