Editing Eugene Field (section)

==Career==

Field then set to work as a [[journalist]] for the ''[[St. Joseph Gazette]]'' in [[Saint Joseph, Missouri]], in 1875.  That same year he married Julia Comstock, with whom he had eight children. For the rest of his life he arranged for all the money he earned to be sent to his wife, saying that he had no head for money himself.

Field soon rose to city editor of the ''Gazette''.

He became known for his light, humorous articles written in a gossipy style, some of which were reprinted by other newspapers around the country. It was during this time that he wrote the famous poem "Lovers Lane" about a street in [[St. Joseph, Missouri]].

From 1876 through 1880, Field lived in St. Louis, first as an editorial writer for the ''Morning Journal'' and subsequently for the ''Times-Journal''. After a brief stint as managing editor of the ''[[Kansas City Times]]'', he worked for two years as editor of the [[Denver, Colorado|Denver]] ''Tribune''.<ref>Below (1898), pp. 50–52.</ref>

In 1883, Field moved to [[Chicago, Illinois|Chicago]] where he wrote a humorous [[newspaper]] column called ''Sharps and Flats'' for the ''[[Chicago Daily News]]''.<ref>Below (1898), pp. 57–58.</ref> His home in Chicago was near the intersection of N. Clarendon and W. Hutchinson in the neighborhood now known as [[Buena Park, Chicago, Illinois|Buena Park]].<ref>Holden, Greg (2001). ''Literary Chicago: A Book Lover's Tour of the Windy City''. Lake Claremont Press, p. 153. {{ISBN|1-893121-01-1}}</ref>

The ''Sharps and Flats'' column ran in the newspaper's morning edition.  In it, Field made quips about issues and personalities of the day, especially in the arts and literature. A pet subject was the intellectual greatness of Chicago, especially compared to Boston.  In April 1887, Field wrote, "While Chicago is humping herself in the interests of literature, art and the sciences, vain old Boston is frivoling away her precious time in an attempted renaissance of the cod fisheries."  Also that year, Chicago's National League baseball club sold future baseball Hall of Famer Mike "King" Kelly to Boston, and coincidentally soon after, famous Boston poet and diplomat James Russell Lowell made a speaking tour of Chicago.  "Chicago feels a special interest in Mr. Lowell at this particular time because he is perhaps the foremost representative of the enterprising and opulent community which within the last week has secured the services of one of Chicago's honored sons for the base-ball season of 1887," Field wrote.  "The fact that Boston has come to Chicago for the captain of her baseball nine has reinvigorated the bonds of affection between the metropolis of the Bay state [sic] and the metropolis of the mighty west; the truth of this will appear in the mighty welcome which our public will give Mr. Lowell next Tuesday."

[[File:Eugene Field House.JPG|thumb|Eugene Field House in [[Denver]], Colorado is on the [[National Register of Historic Places]].]]
Four months later, upon Kelly's first return to Chicago as a player for Boston, Field would speak to "Col. Samuel J. Bosbyshell, the Prairie avenue millionaire."  Bosbyshell said, "I like Mr. Kelly better than I do Lowell.  When Lowell was here I had him out to the house to a $3,500 dinner, and do what I could, I couldn't get him waked up.  He didn't seem to want to talk about anything but literature.  Now, when I'm out in society I make it a point never to talk shop, and Lowell's peculiarity mortified me.  If it hadn't been for [Chicago humorist] Frank Lincoln, with his imitations and funny stories, the dinner would have been a stupid affair.  But Kelly is another kind of man; he is more versatile than Lowell.  I don't believe he mentioned books once during the four hours we sat at dinner last Saturday evening.  Nor did he confine his conversation to base-ball topics; he is deeply versed in turf lore, and he talked most entertainingly of the prominent race horses he was acquainted with and of the leading jockeys he has met."<ref>{{cite book|last=Rosenberg, Howard W.|title=Cap Anson 2: The Theatrical and Kingly Mike Kelly: U.S. Team Sport's First Media Sensation and Baseball's Original Casey at the Bat|publisher=Tile Books|year=2004|pages=438|isbn=0-9725574-1-5}}, pp. 123–124.</ref>

Field first started publishing [[poetry]] in 1879, when his poem "Christmas Treasures" appeared in ''A Little Book of Western Verse''.<ref>Below (1898), p. 58.</ref> Over a dozen volumes of poetry followed and he became well known for his light-hearted poems for children, among the most famous of which are "[[Wynken, Blynken, and Nod]]" and "[[The Duel (poem)|The Duel]]" (which is perhaps better known as "The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat"). Equally famous is his poem about the death of a child, [[Little Boy Blue (poem)|"Little Boy Blue"]]. Field also published a number of short stories, including "The Holy Cross" and "[[Daniel and the Devil]]."
[[Image:Dinky Bird by Maxfield Parrish, 1904.jpg|thumb|right| ''The Dinky Bird'' by [[Maxfield Parrish]], one of eight color plates from the 1904 collection ''Poems of Childhood''<ref>[https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/248335 "Poems of childhood"] (OCLC: 248335). [[WorldCat]]. Retrieved 2018-08-31. <br>&nbsp; This catalog record provides a list of Contents, perhaps 100 poems.</ref> ]]

The volume ''The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac'' was published posthumously with an introduction by Field's brother, Roswell Martin Field, in 1896.<ref>Field, Eugene, Roswell Martin Field, and James Robert Tanis. ''The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac.'' 1896.</ref>

Field died in Chicago of a heart attack at the age of 45.<ref>{{cite news| url=https://www.nytimes.com/1895/11/05/archives/death-of-eugene-field-sudden-end-of-the-poet-and-humorist-at.html | work=The New York Times | title=Death of Eugene Field; Sudden End of the Poet and Humorist at Chicago | date=November 5, 1895}}</ref> He is buried at the Church of the Holy Comforter in [[Kenilworth, Illinois]].<ref>[[Federal Writers' Project]] (1939). ''Illinois: A Descriptive and Historical Guide''. A.C. McClurg & Co., p. 413.</ref> Slason Thompson's 1901 biography of Field states that he was originally buried in [[Graceland Cemetery]] in Chicago,<ref>Thompson, Slason (1901). ''Eugene Field: A Study in Heredity and Contradictions''. C. Scribner's Sons, p. 319.</ref> but his son-in-law, Senior Warden of the Church of the Holy Comforter, had him reinterred on March 7, 1926.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.holycomforter.org/1926/ |title="Burial of Poet Eugene Field 1926" |access-date=January 30, 2013 |archive-date=March 23, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130323185106/http://www.holycomforter.org/1926/ |url-status=dead }}</ref>