Irving Fiske

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Irving Fiske (March 5, 1908–April 25, 1990) born Irving Fishman in Brooklyn, New York, was a playwright, inventor, freelance writer, and speaker.

Irving Fiske, a 1928 graduate of Cornell University, had worked for the Federal Writer's Project of the WPA (Works Progress Administration) during the 1930s, had written for H. L. Mencken’s American Mercury, had corresponded with George Bernard Shaw, had written an article now considered a classic, “Bernard Shaw’s Debt to William Blake", and had translated Shakespeare's Hamlet into Modern English. This was considered a controversial literary action at the time. John Ciardi, who did not approve, reprinted excerpts in the Saturday Review. Most readers wrote in in favor of the translation.

In the mid-Sixties, Irving Fiske began to give talks on Tantric Yoga and other religions and philosophies at the Gallery Gwen in New York's East Village. Many associated him with R. Crumb's mischievous comic book guru Mr. Natural. Hundreds of young people began to visit the Fiske family property, Quarry Hill Creative Center in Rochester, Vermont; many stayed to build houses, and Quarry Hill became the oldest (founded 1946) and largest alternative lifestyle group in Vermont, and one of the largest in New England.