James Fisher

Infobox Writer
name = James Maxwell McConnell Fisher


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caption = on the 1955 Rockall expedition
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birthdate = 3 September, 1912
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deathdate = 25 September, 1970
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occupation = author, ornithologist, naturalist, broadcaster
nationality = British
period =
genre =
subject = Birds
movement =
notableworks = Wild America
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partner =
children =
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website = dablink|For other persons with this name, see James Fisher (disambiguation).

James Maxwell McConnell Fisher (3 September, 1912 – 25 September, 1970) was a British author, editor, broadcaster, naturalist and ornithologist. He was also a leading authority on Gilbert White and made over 1,000 radio and television broadcasts on natural history subjects.

Fisher was the son of Kenneth Fisher, (also a keen ornithologist and headmaster of Oundle School from 1922 to 1945); his maternal uncle was the Cheshire naturalist Arnold Boyd. He was educated at Eton, and began studying medicine at Magdalen College, Oxford, but later switched to zoology. He took part in the Oxford Arctic expedition in 1933 as ornithologist. After university he joined London Zoo as an assistant curator, and during the war studied rooks for the Ministry of Agriculture. He later became a leading member of the RSPB and IUCN, a member of the National Parks Commission and vice-chairman of the Countryside Commission.

James Fisher was one of the members of the small party that on September 18 1955 raised the Union Flag and took official possession for the UK of the tiny, uninhabited, rocky islet of Rockall, in the North Atlantic. [cite book
title=Rockall
last=Fisher |first=James |authorlink=W:James Fisher
date=1957 |publisher=Country Book Club |location=London |origdate=1956 ]

As well as writing his own books, he was an editor of Collins' New Naturalist series. He was the resident ornithologist in the regular "Nature Parliament" series broadcast in the 1950s on BBC radio as part of Children's Hour. It is likely that his writing and broadcasting played a significant role in the growth of interest in birdwatching in the United Kingdom in the post-Second World War period.

He was married to Margery Lilian Edith Turner, and they had 6 children. He died in a car crash in September, 1970.

A public appeal after Fisher's death allowed the seabird island of Copinsay, Orkney, to be purchased as a permanent nature reserve dedicated to his name. [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/33142 Fisher, James Maxwell McConnell (1912-1970), ornithologist] by Gwynne Vevers, rev. Clemency Thorne Fisher in Dictionary of National Biography online (accessed 21 July 2008)]

Bibliography

* "Animals as Friends and how to Keep Them" (J.M. Dent and sons, 1939) with Margaret Shaw.
* "Birds as Animals" (W. Heinemann, 1939)
* "The Living Thoughts of Darwin" (Cassell, 1939) with Julian Huxley.
* "The Natural History of Selborne" (Penguin Books, 1941) with Gilbert White.
* "Watching Birds" (Pelican, 1941, paperback) - sold over 3 million copies.
* "The Birds Of Britain" (W. Collins, 1942)
* "Birds of the Village" (Penguin Books, 1944)
* "Bird Recognition 1" (Pelican Books, 1947; revised edition 1954)
* "Bird Recognition 2" (Pelican Books, 1951)
* "Birds of the Field" (Collins, 1952)
* "The Fulmar" (Collins, 1952)
* "Nature Paliament" (J.M.Dent, 1952)
* "A Thousand Geese" (1953, with Peter Markham Scott)
* "A History of Birds" (Houghton Mifflin, 1954)
* "Sea-birds" (1954, with Ronald Lockley)
* "Bird Recognition 3" (Pelican Books, 1955)
* "Adventure of the Sea" (Rathbone Books, 1956)
* "Birds and Beasts" (Phoenix House, 1956)
* "Rockall" (Bles, 1956)
* "Wild America" (Collins, 1956, with Roger Tory Peterson).
* "The Wonderful World of the Sea" (Garden City Books, 1957)
* "Adventure of the Air" (Rathbone Books, 1958)
* "Shackleton and the Antarctic" (Houghton Mifflin, 1958) with Margery Turner Fisher.
* "The Wonderful World of the Air" (Garden City Books, 1959)
* "Nature: Earth, Plants, Animals" (Macdonald, 1960) with Julian Huxley.
* "The Doubleday Pictorial Library of Nature: Earth, Plants, Animals" (Doubleday, 1961) with Julian Huxley.
* "Shell Nature Book" (Littlehampton Book Services, 1964) with Geoffrey Grigson.
* "The World of Birds" (Doubleday, 1964) with Roger Tory Peterson.
* "The Migration of Birds"(Bodley Head, 1966) illustrated by Crispin Fisher.
* "The Shell List of British and Irish Birds" (Ebury, 1966)
* "The Shell Bird Book" (Ebury Press,1966)
* "Shell Nature Lovers' Atlas of England, Scotland & Wales" (Ebury Press, 1966)
* "Zoos of the World: The Story of Animals in Captivity" (Natural History Press, 1967)
* "Wildlife in Danger" (Viking, 1969) with Noel Simon and Jack Vincent.
* "Birds: An Introduction to Ornithology" (Aldus Books, 1971) posthumously with Roger Tory Peterson.
* "List of Mammals which Have Become Extinct Or are Possibly Extinct Since 1600" (International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources, 1973) posthumously with H. A. Goodwin and J. M. Goodwin.
* "Watching Birds" (Poyser, 1974) posthumously with Jim Flegg, illustrated by Crispin Fisher.
* "Darwin" (Arnoldo Mondadori Editore, 1983) posthumously with Julian Huxley and Antonello La Vergata.

Contributions

* Marion Isabel Newbigin, Julian Huxley, Trevor Samuel Muffitt, Ernst Bernhard Almquist, Richard Elmhirst "Biological Foundations in Education: A Textbook for Teacher Training". (Allen & Unwin, 1931)
* Eliot Howard, "Territory in Bird Life". Collins (1948 edition) - Foreword, with Julian Huxley
* "Evolution as a Process" (1954) editors Julian Huxley, A. C. Hardy and E. B. Ford.
* Archibald Thorburn,"Thorburn's Birds" (Overlook Press, 1976) posthumously. Illustrated by Archibald Thorburn.

References

* cite book
last=Marren |first=Peter
title=The New Naturalists
isbn=0-00-719715-2