(CURIOSITIES) [Fisher Henry] Archive of 31 Fisher Anske han

Sale 2148 - Lot 129

Price Realized: $ 1,140

?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price

Estimate: $ 300 - $ 400

"THE WRITER OF THIS LITTLE HISTORY MAY BE AS REPORTED--CRAZY" (CURIOSITIES.) [Fisher, Henry]. Archive of 31 Fisher & Anske handbills. Each approximately 240 x 152 mm, tipped in to an 1897-1898 Carson Pirie Scott & Co. "Catalogue of Cloaks and Furs." 4to, original paper wrappers, soiled with one corner missing; fliers generally in excellent condition. Lacon, IL, 1897 and nd

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Fisher & Anske were grocery dealers in rural Lacon, IL who published weekly flyers advertising their sales. Nothing unusual there, except that partner Henry Fisher (1833-1912) used the top half of each flyer to air out convoluted family grievances to his fellow Laconians. In short, Fisher's wife had been cut out of her family's estate, and Fisher heaped abuse upon his brother-in-law to gain redress. Many of the attacks were in the form of obscure parables and analogies, but enough specifics are provided to piece the story together. Fisher's prose is ripe with paranoid rhetoric: "The writer of our LITTLE HISTORY would rather live in a cave, breathe the poisonous vapor, and dwell among reptiles such as toads, lizards and snakes, than live among his children knowing that they were wronged." Some fliers suggest that Fisher's brother-in-law had threatened retaliation: "Do not tell the children of the writer that their father is going to be arrested. If he has not lied, he is not guilty of libel." Fisher also sketches out the pioneer history of his family in five of his later fliers, all titled "Back Logs Rolling to the Front." These fliers may have baffled the earnest shoppers of Lacon, but Fisher and his son remained in business there for many years afterward.