Marshall Fishwick
Encyclopedia
Marshall Fishwick was a multidisciplinary scholar, professor, writer, and editor who started the academic movement known as popular culture studies
and established the journal International Popular Culture. In 1970 he cofounded the Popular Culture Association with Ray B. Browne
and Russel B. Nye, and the three worked to shape a new academic discipline that blurred the traditional distinctions between high and low culture, focusing on mass culture mediums like television and the Internet and cultural archetypes like comic book heroes. In an academic career of more than fifty years, Fishwick wrote or edited more than forty books, including works on popular culture, Virginia history, and American studies. Marshall William Fishwick - teacher, author, and world traveler. Marshall William Fishwick is widely regarded as originator of the academic movement known as Popular Culture
.
Marshall W. Fishwick, Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and Director of both the American Studies and Popular Culture programs at Virginia Tech. Born in Roanoke, Virginia
, and a graduate of Jefferson High School, Fishwick held degrees from the University of Virginia
, the University of Wisconsin, and Yale University
, and he later received honorary degrees from Bombay University, and Dhaka University. During his career, he received eight Fulbright Awards and numerous additional grants which enabled him to introduce the popular culture
discipline at home and abroad in Denmark
, Germany
, Italy
, Poland
, Russia
, Bangladesh
, India
, and Korea
.
Professor Fishwick began his teaching career at Washington and Lee University
in 1949. Professor Fishwick, professor emeritus in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech retired in 2003.
Professor Fishwick co-founded the Popular Culture Association in the late 1960s. In 1997 he was presented the Life Achievement Award in Popular Culture by the Popular Culture Association. In 1998 Professor Fishwick was honored with a lifetime achievement award by the American Culture Association.
As a Fulbright Distinguished Professor, he has worked with scholars and students in many countries and helped establish the American Studies Research Center in Hyderabad, India, the largest Asian collection of American books. Fishwick founded the journal International Popular Culture, and was co-founder of the Popular Culture Association. He served as the association's president and was advisory editor of both the Journal of Popular Culture
and the Journal of American Culture. Fishwick served as Advisory Editor to the Journal of American Culture and was a Senior Editor at Haworth Press
.
Best-selling author Tom Wolfe
, a student of Fishwick's at Washington and Lee, called Fishwick the best professor and "most magnetic teacher" he ever had. He said he was inspired to pursue a graduate degree in American studies at Yale University
because Fishwick had. More in the tradition of anthropologists than literary scholars, Fishwick taught his classes to look at the whole of a culture, even those elements considered profane.
Throughout his career he contributed articles on American studies and popular culture to papers and journals all over the world; he also published numerous articles and commentaries in American magazines and newspapers. He went on to write more than twenty books and edited an additional dozen in the fields of history
, literature
, education
, theology
, and communication
. Of course, Professor Fishwick also authored many books including American Heroes: Myth and Reality, American Studies in Transition, Icons in Popular Culture, An American Mosaic: Rethinking American Culture History, Popular Culture: Cavespace to Cyberspace, and Go and Catch a Falling Star.
Fishwick’s literary career began while he was at sea with the Atlantic Fleet during World War II
. His collected poems, The Face of Jang, were published in 1945. After the war, he earned a doctorate in American Studies at Yale University. His dissertation was published as A New Look at the Old Dominion. A life-long interest in heroes resulted in such titles as Virginians on Olympus, The Hero: Myth and Reality, The Hero: American Style, Heroes of Popular Culture, and The Hero in Transition. Other titles included Lee after the War, General Lee’s Photographer, Springlore in Virginia, and Faust Revisited.
His books on popular culture included Seven Pillars of Popular Culture, Common Culture and the Great Tradition, Great Awakenings: Popular Religion in America, and most recently, two textbooks, Go and Catch a Falling Star and An American Mosaic. An inveterate traveler, Fishwick reminisced about his journeys in Around the World in Forty Years. His most recent book, Cicero and Popular Culture, is in press and was published posthumously.
He died Monday, May 22, 2006. He was 82.
Marshall William Fishwick was born in Roanoke on July 5, 1923, to English parents. He grew up singing in church with his brother John, who eventually became president of the Norfolk and Western Railway. He financed his studies at the University of Virginia (BA, 1943) by singing professionally. While serving with the U.S. Navy's Atlantic Fleet during World War II (1939–1945), he wrote poetry, and in 1945 a collected volume of his poems, The Face of Jang, was published.
Fishwick returned to school after the war—University of Wisconsin (MA, 1946) and Yale University (PhD, 1949)—and published his dissertation as Virginia: A New Look at the Old Dominion (1959). Other early publications on Virginia history included Virginians on Olympus (1951), General Lee's Photographer: The Life and Work of Michael Miley (1954), Gentlemen of Virginia (1961), and Lee after the War (1963). He also wrote many books on popular culture: The Hero: American Style (1969), Common Culture and the Great Tradition: The Case for Renewal (1982), Seven Pillars of Popular Culture (1985), and Great Awakenings: Popular Religion in America (1995).
Fishwick taught at Washington and Lee University (1949–1962) before directing the Wemyss Foundation (1962–1964) and Lincoln University's Art and American Studies departments (1964–1970), and then teaching at Temple University (1970–1976). Settling at Virginia Tech until his 2003 retirement, he founded the American Studies and Popular Culture programs. Among his well-known students were journalist Roger Mudd and novelist Tom Wolfe, who wrote forewords for some of Fishwick's books.
Fishwick's professional recognitions include honorary degrees from the University of Bombay (now the University of Mumbai), the University of Dhaka, and Kraków University. With eight Fulbright Awards and several other grants, he taught in Bangladesh, Denmark, Germany, India, Italy, South Korea, Poland, and Russia. He described some of his travels in Around the World in Forty Years (1984).
The Popular Culture Association, of which he had once served as president, named a travel grant program for Fishwick, and in 1997 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Popular Culture from the American Culture Association. He was an advisory editor for the Journal of Popular Culture and the Journal of American Culture and also edited works on communication, education, history, literature, and theology. In his religious life, he served as a member of the Guild of Scholars of the Episcopal Church and historiographer of the Diocese of Southwest Virginia.
Fishwick had three daughters and a son with his first wife, two stepdaughters, and thirteen grandchildren. His third wife was historian Ann La Berge, a Virginia Tech colleague he married in 1995. He died at their Blacksburg home of complications from a blood disease on May 22, 2006. Fishwick's last book, Cicero, Classicism, and Popular Culture (2007), was published posthumously and includes several recollections about Fishwick from people who knew him personally and professionally.
Major Works
Time Line
July 5, 1923 - Marshall Fishwick is born in Roanoke.
1943 - Marshall Fishwick receives his BA from the University of Virginia.
1946 - Marshall Fishwick receives his MA from the University of Wisconsin.
1949 - Marshall Fishwick receives his PhD from Yale University and his dissertation Virginia: A New Look at the Old Dominion is published in 1959.
1949–1962 - Marshall Fishwick teaches at Washington and Lee University in Lexington.
1964–1970 - Marshall Fishwick chairs Lincoln University's Art and American Studies departments.
1970–1976 - Marshall Fishwick teaches at Temple University.
1970 - Marshall Fishwick cofounds the Popular Culture Association with Ray B. Browne and Russel B. Nye.
1976–2003 - Marshall Fishwick teaches at Virginia Tech where he founds the American Studies and Popular Culture programs.
2003 - Marshall Fishwick retires from Virginia Tech.
May 22, 2006 - Marshall Fishwick dies at his home in Blacksburg.
Further Reading
Browne, Ray B. "In Memoriam: Marshall Fishwick." Perspectives Online 45.1 (January 2007).
Elliott, Jean. "Marshall Fishwick, retired professor and founder of popular culture studies, dies at 82." Virginia Tech News 24 May 2006.
Esposito, Greg. "Fishwick disciplined popular culture: Author Tom Wolfe called Marshall Fishwick the 'most magnetic teacher' he ever had." The Roanoke Times 24 May 2006.
Popular culture studies
Popular culture studies is the academic discipline studying popular culture from a critical theory perspective. It is generally considered as a combination of communication studies and cultural studies....
and established the journal International Popular Culture. In 1970 he cofounded the Popular Culture Association with Ray B. Browne
Ray B. Browne
Ray Broadus Browne , was an American educator, author, and founder of the academic study of popular culture in the United States. He was Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio. He founded the first academic Department of Popular Culture at...
and Russel B. Nye, and the three worked to shape a new academic discipline that blurred the traditional distinctions between high and low culture, focusing on mass culture mediums like television and the Internet and cultural archetypes like comic book heroes. In an academic career of more than fifty years, Fishwick wrote or edited more than forty books, including works on popular culture, Virginia history, and American studies. Marshall William Fishwick - teacher, author, and world traveler. Marshall William Fishwick is widely regarded as originator of the academic movement known as Popular Culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
.
Marshall W. Fishwick, Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies and Director of both the American Studies and Popular Culture programs at Virginia Tech. Born in Roanoke, Virginia
Roanoke, Virginia
Roanoke is an independent city in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. state of Virginia and is the tenth-largest city in the Commonwealth. It is located in the Roanoke Valley of the Roanoke Region of Virginia. The population within the city limits was 97,032 as of 2010...
, and a graduate of Jefferson High School, Fishwick held degrees from the University of Virginia
University of Virginia
The University of Virginia is a public research university located in Charlottesville, Virginia, United States, founded by Thomas Jefferson...
, the University of Wisconsin, and Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
, and he later received honorary degrees from Bombay University, and Dhaka University. During his career, he received eight Fulbright Awards and numerous additional grants which enabled him to introduce the popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
discipline at home and abroad in Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Bangladesh
Bangladesh
Bangladesh , officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh is a sovereign state located in South Asia. It is bordered by India on all sides except for a small border with Burma to the far southeast and by the Bay of Bengal to the south...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
, and Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
.
Professor Fishwick began his teaching career at Washington and Lee University
Washington and Lee University
Washington and Lee University is a private liberal arts college in Lexington, Virginia, United States.The classical school from which Washington and Lee descended was established in 1749 as Augusta Academy, about north of its present location. In 1776 it was renamed Liberty Hall in a burst of...
in 1949. Professor Fishwick, professor emeritus in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech retired in 2003.
Professor Fishwick co-founded the Popular Culture Association in the late 1960s. In 1997 he was presented the Life Achievement Award in Popular Culture by the Popular Culture Association. In 1998 Professor Fishwick was honored with a lifetime achievement award by the American Culture Association.
As a Fulbright Distinguished Professor, he has worked with scholars and students in many countries and helped establish the American Studies Research Center in Hyderabad, India, the largest Asian collection of American books. Fishwick founded the journal International Popular Culture, and was co-founder of the Popular Culture Association. He served as the association's president and was advisory editor of both the Journal of Popular Culture
Journal of Popular Culture
The Journal of Popular Culture is a peer-reviewed journal and the official publication of the Popular Culture Association.The Journal of Popular Culture publishes academic essays on all aspects of popular or mass culture...
and the Journal of American Culture. Fishwick served as Advisory Editor to the Journal of American Culture and was a Senior Editor at Haworth Press
Haworth Press
Haworth Press was a publisher of scholarly, academic and trade books, and approximately 200 peer-reviewed academic journals. It was founded in 1978 by the publishing industry executives Bill Cohen and Patrick Mclaughlin. The name was taken from the township of Haworth in England, the home of the...
.
Best-selling author Tom Wolfe
Tom Wolfe
Thomas Kennerly "Tom" Wolfe, Jr. is a best-selling American author and journalist. He is one of the founders of the New Journalism movement of the 1960s and 1970s.-Early life and education:...
, a student of Fishwick's at Washington and Lee, called Fishwick the best professor and "most magnetic teacher" he ever had. He said he was inspired to pursue a graduate degree in American studies at Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
because Fishwick had. More in the tradition of anthropologists than literary scholars, Fishwick taught his classes to look at the whole of a culture, even those elements considered profane.
Throughout his career he contributed articles on American studies and popular culture to papers and journals all over the world; he also published numerous articles and commentaries in American magazines and newspapers. He went on to write more than twenty books and edited an additional dozen in the fields of history
History
History is the discovery, collection, organization, and presentation of information about past events. History can also mean the period of time after writing was invented. Scholars who write about history are called historians...
, literature
Literature
Literature is the art of written works, and is not bound to published sources...
, education
Education
Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...
, theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
, and communication
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
. Of course, Professor Fishwick also authored many books including American Heroes: Myth and Reality, American Studies in Transition, Icons in Popular Culture, An American Mosaic: Rethinking American Culture History, Popular Culture: Cavespace to Cyberspace, and Go and Catch a Falling Star.
Fishwick’s literary career began while he was at sea with the Atlantic Fleet during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. His collected poems, The Face of Jang, were published in 1945. After the war, he earned a doctorate in American Studies at Yale University. His dissertation was published as A New Look at the Old Dominion. A life-long interest in heroes resulted in such titles as Virginians on Olympus, The Hero: Myth and Reality, The Hero: American Style, Heroes of Popular Culture, and The Hero in Transition. Other titles included Lee after the War, General Lee’s Photographer, Springlore in Virginia, and Faust Revisited.
His books on popular culture included Seven Pillars of Popular Culture, Common Culture and the Great Tradition, Great Awakenings: Popular Religion in America, and most recently, two textbooks, Go and Catch a Falling Star and An American Mosaic. An inveterate traveler, Fishwick reminisced about his journeys in Around the World in Forty Years. His most recent book, Cicero and Popular Culture, is in press and was published posthumously.
He died Monday, May 22, 2006. He was 82.
Marshall William Fishwick was born in Roanoke on July 5, 1923, to English parents. He grew up singing in church with his brother John, who eventually became president of the Norfolk and Western Railway. He financed his studies at the University of Virginia (BA, 1943) by singing professionally. While serving with the U.S. Navy's Atlantic Fleet during World War II (1939–1945), he wrote poetry, and in 1945 a collected volume of his poems, The Face of Jang, was published.
Fishwick returned to school after the war—University of Wisconsin (MA, 1946) and Yale University (PhD, 1949)—and published his dissertation as Virginia: A New Look at the Old Dominion (1959). Other early publications on Virginia history included Virginians on Olympus (1951), General Lee's Photographer: The Life and Work of Michael Miley (1954), Gentlemen of Virginia (1961), and Lee after the War (1963). He also wrote many books on popular culture: The Hero: American Style (1969), Common Culture and the Great Tradition: The Case for Renewal (1982), Seven Pillars of Popular Culture (1985), and Great Awakenings: Popular Religion in America (1995).
Fishwick taught at Washington and Lee University (1949–1962) before directing the Wemyss Foundation (1962–1964) and Lincoln University's Art and American Studies departments (1964–1970), and then teaching at Temple University (1970–1976). Settling at Virginia Tech until his 2003 retirement, he founded the American Studies and Popular Culture programs. Among his well-known students were journalist Roger Mudd and novelist Tom Wolfe, who wrote forewords for some of Fishwick's books.
Fishwick's professional recognitions include honorary degrees from the University of Bombay (now the University of Mumbai), the University of Dhaka, and Kraków University. With eight Fulbright Awards and several other grants, he taught in Bangladesh, Denmark, Germany, India, Italy, South Korea, Poland, and Russia. He described some of his travels in Around the World in Forty Years (1984).
The Popular Culture Association, of which he had once served as president, named a travel grant program for Fishwick, and in 1997 he received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Popular Culture from the American Culture Association. He was an advisory editor for the Journal of Popular Culture and the Journal of American Culture and also edited works on communication, education, history, literature, and theology. In his religious life, he served as a member of the Guild of Scholars of the Episcopal Church and historiographer of the Diocese of Southwest Virginia.
Fishwick had three daughters and a son with his first wife, two stepdaughters, and thirteen grandchildren. His third wife was historian Ann La Berge, a Virginia Tech colleague he married in 1995. He died at their Blacksburg home of complications from a blood disease on May 22, 2006. Fishwick's last book, Cicero, Classicism, and Popular Culture (2007), was published posthumously and includes several recollections about Fishwick from people who knew him personally and professionally.
Major Works
Time Line
July 5, 1923 - Marshall Fishwick is born in Roanoke.
1943 - Marshall Fishwick receives his BA from the University of Virginia.
1946 - Marshall Fishwick receives his MA from the University of Wisconsin.
1949 - Marshall Fishwick receives his PhD from Yale University and his dissertation Virginia: A New Look at the Old Dominion is published in 1959.
1949–1962 - Marshall Fishwick teaches at Washington and Lee University in Lexington.
1964–1970 - Marshall Fishwick chairs Lincoln University's Art and American Studies departments.
1970–1976 - Marshall Fishwick teaches at Temple University.
1970 - Marshall Fishwick cofounds the Popular Culture Association with Ray B. Browne and Russel B. Nye.
1976–2003 - Marshall Fishwick teaches at Virginia Tech where he founds the American Studies and Popular Culture programs.
2003 - Marshall Fishwick retires from Virginia Tech.
May 22, 2006 - Marshall Fishwick dies at his home in Blacksburg.
Further Reading
Browne, Ray B. "In Memoriam: Marshall Fishwick." Perspectives Online 45.1 (January 2007).
Elliott, Jean. "Marshall Fishwick, retired professor and founder of popular culture studies, dies at 82." Virginia Tech News 24 May 2006.
Esposito, Greg. "Fishwick disciplined popular culture: Author Tom Wolfe called Marshall Fishwick the 'most magnetic teacher' he ever had." The Roanoke Times 24 May 2006.