Editing Eugene Field

{{Short description|American writer (1850–1895)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=April 2021}}
{{Infobox person
| name        = Eugene Field Sr.
| image       = Eugene Field cph.3b08726.jpg
| image_size  = 200px
| caption     = Portrait, 1895
| birth_date  = {{birth date|1850|9|2|mf=y}}
| birth_place = [[St. Louis, Missouri]], US
| death_date  = {{death date and age|1895|11|4|1850|9|2|mf=y}}
| death_place = [[Chicago, Illinois]]
| occupation  = Writer
| nationality = American
| spouse      = 
| parents     =
| children    = [[Eugene Field II]]
| signature   = Signature of Eugene Field Sr. (1850–1895).png
}}

'''Eugene Field Sr.''' (September 2, 1850 – November 4, 1895) was an American writer, best known for his [[children's poetry]] and humorous essays. He was known as the "poet of childhood".<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/LiterarySt.Louis |title=Literary St. Louis |publisher=Associates of St. Louis University Libraries, Inc. and Landmarks Association of St. Louis, Inc |year=1969 }}</ref>

==Early life and education==

Field was born in [[St. Louis, Missouri]] at 634 S. Broadway where today his boyhood home is open to the public as The [[Eugene Field House (St. Louis)|Eugene Field House]] and St. Louis Toy Museum.<ref name=":0" /> After the death of his mother in 1856, he was raised by an aunt, Mary Field French, in [[Amherst, Massachusetts]].<ref>Below, Ida Comstock (1898). ''Eugene Field in His Home''. E.P. Dutton & Co., p. 19.</ref>

Field's father, attorney [[Roswell Martin Field]], was the lawyer who filed [[Dred Scott]]'s case.

Field attended [[Williams College]] in Williamstown, Massachusetts. His father died when Eugene turned 19, and he subsequently dropped out of Williams after eight months. He then went to [[Knox College, Illinois|Knox College]] in [[Galesburg, Illinois]], but dropped out after a year, followed by the [[University of Missouri]] in [[Columbia, Missouri]], where his brother Roswell was also attending. Field was not a serious student and spent much of his time at school playing practical jokes. He led raids on the president's wine cellar, painted the president's house school colors, and fired the school's landmark cannons at midnight.<ref name=":0" /> Field tried [[acting]], studied law with little success, and also wrote for the student newspaper. He then set off for a trip through Europe but returned to the United States six months later, penniless.

==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>

==Legacy==

Several of his poems were set to music with commercial success by composers such as [[Isabel Stewart North]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=North|first=Isabel Stewart|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=blYBGwAACAAJ|title=In the Firelight|date=1893|publisher=Chicago Music|language=en}}</ref> [[Gertrude Ross]],<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LHQ9AQAAMAAJ&dq=gertrude+ross+composer&pg=PA3 |title=Pacific Coast Musical Review |date=1913 |publisher=A. Metzger |language=en}}</ref> and [[Ella May Dunning Smith]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=Ella May Smith - Vocal Texts and Translations at the LiederNet Archive|url=https://www.lieder.net/lieder/get_settings.html?ComposerId=14004|access-date=2022-02-15|website=www.lieder.net}}</ref> Many of his works were accompanied by paintings from [[Maxfield Parrish]]. 

His childhood home in [[St. Louis, Missouri|St. Louis]] is now a museum.<ref>Walker, Patricia Chambers, and Graham Thomas (1999). ''Directory of Historic House Museums in the United States''. Rowman Altamira, p. 196. {{ISBN|0-7425-0344-5}}</ref> The Eugene Field House contains many of Field's mementos, including original manuscripts, books, furniture, personal effects, and some of the toys that inspired his poems.<ref name=":0" />

Field has his own star on the [[St. Louis Walk of Fame]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stlouiswalkoffame.org/inductees/?view=achievement |title=St. Louis Walk of Fame Inductees |last=St. Louis Walk of Fame |publisher=stlouiswalkoffame.org |access-date=25 April 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121031162946/http://www.stlouiswalkoffame.org/inductees/?view=achievement |archive-date=31 October 2012 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

In 2016, Field was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://chicagoliteraryhof.org/inductees/profile/eugene-field |title=Eugene Field |website=Chicago Literary Hall of Fame |language=en |access-date=2017-10-05}}</ref>

As a memorial to Field, a statue of the Dream Lady from his poem "Rock-a-by-Lady" was erected in 1922 at the [[Lincoln Park Zoo]] in Chicago.  There is also a park and fieldhouse named in his honor in Chicago's [[Albany Park, Chicago|Albany Park]] neighborhood. In nearby [[Oak Park, Illinois]], another park is named in his honor; a sign there offers a brief biography.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Eugene Field Park Historical Marker |url=https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=230700 |access-date=2025-01-30 |website=www.hmdb.org |language=en}}</ref>  A statue of Wynken, Blynken and Nod adorns Washington Park, near Field's Denver home.  Another statue of Wynken, Blynken and Nod sits in the center of the town square (called "the green" by locals) in Wellsboro, Pa.

Numerous elementary schools throughout the Midwest are named for him, e.g. Eugene Field Elementary School in [[Chicago, Illinois]]; [[Wheeling, Illinois]]; [[Rock Island, Illinois]]; [[Elmhurst, Illinois]]; [[Normal, Illinois]];  [[Park Ridge, Illinois]]; [[Maryville, Missouri]]; [[St. Joseph, Missouri]]; [[Hannibal, Missouri]]; [[Columbia, Missouri]]; [[Mexico, Missouri]]; [[Neosho, Missouri]]; [[Poplar Bluff, Missouri]]; [[Springfield, Missouri]]; [[Webb City, Missouri]]; [[Manhattan, Kansas]]; [[Ottawa, Kansas]]; [[Minneapolis, Minnesota]]; and formerly in [[Muncie, Indiana]] (closed in 1973).

Other schools named after Field are located in [[Littleton, Colorado]]; [[Mitchell, South Dakota]];[[Sioux Falls, South Dakota]]; [[Tulsa, Oklahoma]]; [[Altus, Oklahoma]]; [[Oklahoma City, Oklahoma]]; [[Hugo, Oklahoma]]; [[Beaumont, Texas]]; [[Houston, Texas]]; [[Albuquerque, New Mexico]]; [[Mesa, Arizona]];  [[Pasadena, California]]; [[San Diego, California]]; and [[Silverton, Oregon]]. 

One of the branches of the [[Denver Public Library]] near Field's Denver home is named after him, as is an apartment building in [[Denver]]'s Poet's Row. A dormitory in the Orchard Hill residential area at the [[University of Massachusetts Amherst]] also bears Field's name.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Field, Eugene |url=https://www.umass.edu/physicalplant/field-eugene |publisher=Physical Plant, [[University of Massachusetts Amherst]] |access-date=18 May 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hewitt |first=Raymond G. |date=12 January 1968 |title=Facts and Figures 1967 University of Massachusetts Amherst |url=https://www.umass.edu/uair/sites/default/files/publications/factbooks/Factbook_1967.pdf |publisher=Office of Institutional Studies, [[University of Massachusetts Amherst]] |page=187 |access-date=18 May 2023}}</ref>

Before his death, Field wrote and published an anonymous work about a 12-year-old boy being seduced by a woman in her 30s. It was titled "Only a Boy". In the 1920s, American drama critic and magazine editor [[George Jean Nathan]] recalled it as a popular forbidden work among those coming of age at the turn of the century, along with ''[[Fanny Hill]]'' and "Green Girls of Paris".{{clarify|What is the "Green Girls of Paris"?|date=February 2017}} It was published by [[Grove Press]] in 1968 with the real author's name.

==See also==
{{Portal|Poetry|Children's literature}}
*[[Nick Kenny (poet)|Nick Kenny]]
*[[O. O. McIntyre]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
{{wikisource author}}
{{commons category}}
* {{Gutenberg author |id=238| name=Eugene Field}}
* {{FadedPage|id=Field, Eugene|name=Eugene Field|author=yes}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Eugene Field}}
* {{Librivox author |id=614}}
* {{Find a Grave|4706}}
* [https://www.poets.org/poetsorg/poet/eugene-field Eugene Field: Profile and Poems at Poets.org]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20080626124700/http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/fa/lffield.html Eugene Field Collection] at the [[Harry Ransom Center]] at the [[University of Texas at Austin]]
* {{isfdb name|16819}}
* {{LCAuth|n79059045|Eugene Field|141|}}
*[[hdl:10079/fa/beinecke.fielde|Eugene Field Collection]]. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Field, Eugene}}
[[Category:1850 births]]
[[Category:1895 deaths]]
[[Category:American children's writers]]
[[Category:American columnists]]
[[Category:American humorists]]
[[Category:American newspaper editors]]
[[Category:Knox College (Illinois) alumni]]
[[Category:Williams College alumni]]
[[Category:Poets from Missouri]]
[[Category:Poets from Massachusetts]]
[[Category:People from Amherst, Massachusetts]]
[[Category:Writers from St. Louis]]
[[Category:University of Missouri alumni]]
[[Category:News-Press & Gazette Company people]]
[[Category:19th-century American poets]]
[[Category:American male poets]]
[[Category:19th-century American journalists]]
[[Category:American male journalists]]
[[Category:American children's poets]]
[[Category:19th-century American male writers]]
[[Category:Phi Delta Theta members]]