
Born in Washington, DC in the late nineteenth century, Fisher grew up in Providence, Rhode Island graduating from Classical High School and attending Brown University. He earned his Bachelor of Arts from Brown in 1919, where he delivered the valedictory address, and received a Master of Arts a year later.[citation needed] He went on to attend Howard University Medical School and graduated in 1924. Fisher came to New York City in 1925 to take up a fellowship at College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia University, during which time he published two scientific articles of his research on treating bacteriophage viruses with ultraviolet light. Fisher married Jane Ryder in 1925, and they had one son, Hugh, who was born in 1926. After his fellowship ended, Fisher had a private practice on Long Island. In 1930, he became superintendent of International Hospital, a black-owned private hospital on Seventh Avenue in Harlem, but the hospital went bankrupt in October 1931. Fisher died after unsuccessful abdominal surgery in 1934 at the age of 37.

The New Negro
1925
ISBN 9780684838311
The Best Short Stories by Black Writers, 1899-1967: The Classic Anthology
1967
ISBN 9780316380317
Black noir
2009
ISBN 9781605980577
The Walls of Jericho
1928
ISBN 9780472065653
The Conjure-Man Dies
1932
ISBN 9781464215964
The City of Refuge: The Collected Stories of Rudolph Fisher
1987
ISBN 9780826218124
The Conjure-Man Dies: A Mystery Tale of Dark Harlem
1932
ISBN 9780472064922
The Conjure-Man Dies: A Harlem Mystery
1932
The City of Refuge [New and Expanded Edition]: The Collected Stories of Rudolph Fisher
1987