Daniel Willard Fiske

Daniel Willard Fiske (November 11, 1831 – September 17, 1904) 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.

With loans from Andrew Dickson White, Fiske at age 48 took a leave of absence and sailed to Europe. In the summer of 1879, he visited Iceland for three months, travelling on the island with two other Americans and endearing himself to the residents by organizing donations of books from America. He travelled to Rome in April 1880 to join Jennie McGraw, then age 40. In July 1880, he married Jennie, at the American Legation in Berlin. McGraw was the daughter of timber magnate John McGraw, and upon McGraw's death in 1877 inherited $2.2 million ($49.5 million today). Their marriage was short, and by September 1881 she had died from tuberculosis. Controversy over her will's bequest to Cornell left Fiske involved in the Great Will Case. Following its resolution in May 1890, he spent much of his remaining years in Italy, and collected manuscripts.

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