Christian Reid

Frances Fisher was born the third of three children in Salisbury, North Carolina.[2] Her parents were Colonel Charles Frederick Fisher and his wife, the former Elizabeth Clarissa Caldwell. Her mother had converted to Catholicism and raised Frances in that faith; her father was an Episcopalian. Colonel Fisher was killed in the beginning of the American Civil War at the battle of Manassas. Frances remained loyal to his Confederate ideals all her life. [3] Her mother died while Frances was an infant, and she and her two siblings were orphaned. They were raised by a Catholic maiden aunt on her mother's side. The Fisher family was rich, but the family lost much of its money due to the war. The family lived at the northwest corner of Fulton and Innes streets in Salisbury, North Carolina.[4] As a child of three or four, before she had learned to write, Frances liked to tell long, fanciful stories, which she persuaded her aunt to transcribe.[5]

She received her early instruction from her aunt Christine Reid. Fisher was sent to school at what was called St. Mary's College, a girls' school now known as Saint Mary's School in Raleigh, North Carolina. But her education was completed under the instruction of her aunt.[1]

Fisher took her nom de plume, Christian Reid, from Christian, a family name on her mother's side, and Reid on her father's. Her family disliked it.[2][6] Appletons' Journal accepted her first article under this pen name, and sent her a check to "Christian Reid" for US$50. Fisher was in a quandary as to how to cash the check and sought advice from her lawyer. He advised her to make it payable to him to avoid detection. Later, a member of the Appleton's firm wished to see the author Christian Reid while passing through North Carolina, but could not discover such a person in Salisbury. He questioned the postmaster, who said probably Mr. Reid was related to the Fishers and had perhaps been visiting them, as his mail was sent there. Learning this, Fisher confided to the postmaster about her pseudonym.[7]

Valerie Aylmer

Fisher was writing stories regularly but it was not until the end of the war, when the family had lost its fortune, that she decided to write a novel to generate more income. The publication of Valerie Aylmer in 1870 was an instant success. A 1910 critic said that while it was faulty and immature; it possessed the charm of interest. Today it is noted for its portrayal of life and conduct in the South, as reflected through the temperament of a sentimental, young lady of distinguished birth.[5]

The first period of Christian Reid's literary activities comprises the decade from 1869 to 1879. Most notable of the works of this period are the novels, Morton House (1871), A Daughter of Bohemia (1874), and A Question of Honor (1875). Her slight travel-sketch, entitled The Land of the Sky (1876) was highly popular, read by hundreds of thousands of people. This was considered the most notable commemoration of a section of the US ever published in North Carolina.[5] After extending a line to Asheville around 1880, Southern Railway, used “The Land of the Sky" in its advertising for that route.[8]

Miss Churchill

A distinct accession of power and increased mastery of style marked the works of Christian Reid's second period of literary activity, beginning after her return from Europe in 1880. Heart of Steel was a work approximating that of the standard English novelists, such as Anthony Trollope, in solidity of workmanship and concentration of purpose. Other works of this period were Armine, Roslyn's Fortune, The Child of Mary, Philip's Restitution, and Miss Churchill.[5]

In 1887 Fisher married James Marquis Tiernan, of Maryland, and settled with him in Mexico, where he had extensive mining interests. This marked a third period in her career as a novelist. Her short story from this period, The Picture of Las Cruces, was highly popular. It had the distinction of being translated into French and being published in the Paris magazine, L'Illustration. The book was notable for the beauty of its envisagement of a semi-tropical land, the ideality of its poetic atmosphere, and the art displayed in the comparison and juxtaposition of the fragile romance of Mexico with the hardy realism of America. The Lady of Las Cruces, like most sequels, was less a natural consequence of the former story, than a hazardous attempt to crown the story with a "happy" (and popular) ending.

Other works of this period are: the travel-romance, The Land of the Sun (1894), one of her most interesting tales;[9] as well as Carmela, Little Maid of Mexico, A Comedy of Elopement, A Woman of Fortune, Weighed in the Balance, and Carmen's Inheritance. In addition, she published two novels inspired by her travels in Santo Domingo: The Man of the Family and The Chase of an Heiress.[5]

A Summer Idyl

Under her pen name of Christian Reid, she wrote at least two dramas, and numerous poems. The play Under the Southern Cross, was a stirring picture of the South during the American Civil War. It found enthusiastic houses in productions throughout the South. It expressed the South's views on the constitutional right of secession.[5][9] The other play, entitled Princess Nadine, was published only as a novel. She rewrote it in that form in collaboration with Victor Mapes, and it was translated into Italian.[5] Most of her books were published by the Appletons. A few that were more Roman Catholic in tone, such as Armine, were produced by the Catholic Publishing Company of New York.[9] Other works included Mabel Lee, Ebb Tide, Nina's Atonement, A Gentle Belle, Hearts and Hands, After Many Days, Bonny Kate, A Summer Idyll, and A Child of Mary.[2]

Some critics described Fisher's work as "a graceful, limpid style", "bland" and "sylvan romances".[10] Others described it as being striking in its naturalness and truthfulness.[11] One biography said "There is in her fiction an over-reliance on the picturesque that was popular in the years following the Civil War. Yet, her work stands apart from the many narratives of travel in Appalachia in its honest and realistic portrait of life in southern society."[10]

Early in life, Fisher was received into the Catholic Church by Cardinal James Gibbons, then only Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina. She practised her religion zealously and helped raise money for construction of a Catholic Church in her native town.[9] Tiernan donated land for Sacred Heart Catholic Church, dedicated November 19, 1882.[6] I

In 1909, Tiernan was awarded the Laetare Medal by the University of Notre Dame.[12] At the time, she had published some 30 novels and numerous short stories, and was living with her aunt, Christine Fisher. It was the first time the medal was awarded to a Southerner.[5]

She had married James Marquis Tiernan on December 29, 1887,[13] and they moved to Mexico where he had mining interests.[1][14] (He died January 1898.) At first the widowed Fisher Tiernan continued to live in New York, but decided to return to Salisbury, where she lived in her family house.

Tiernan died March 24, 1920 in Salisbury. She is buried at Chestnut Hill Cemetery in the Fisher family plot. Because a fire destroyed some cemetery records in the 1930s, it is not certain which family member is buried where. In 2006, the entire family plot was enclosed by a brick wall, with materials and labor donated by the owners of Taylor Clay Products. A pink granite bench was added and a granite cross was restored.[6]

The United Daughters of the Confederacy erected a monument to Fisher Tiernan in 1939 on West Innes Street in Salisbury. It was moved in 1955 and again in 1983, this time to the site of the Rowan Public Library. Fisher had donated money for the Confederate Monument in Salisbury partly from the money she made from The Land of the Sky.[4]

• Works by or about Christian Reid at Internet Archive
• Christian Reid at D. H. Ramsey Library Special Collections