Eugene Field

Infobox Person
name = Eugene Field, Sr.


image_size = 200px
caption = Eugene Field
birth_date = birth date|1850|9|2|mf=y
birth_place = St. Louis, Missouri
death_date = death date and age|1895|11|4|1850|9|2|mf=y
death_place = Chicago, Illinois
occupation = American writer
spouse =
parents =
children =Eugene Field, Jr.

Eugene Field, Sr. (September 2, 1850 - November 4, 1895) was an American writer, best known for his children's poetry and humorous essays.

Biography

Field was born in St. Louis, Missouri. After the death of his mother in 1856, he was raised by a cousin, Mary Field French, in Amherst, Massachusetts. [Below, Ida Comstock (1898). "Eugene Field in His Home". E.P. Dutton & Co., p. 19.]

Field attended Williams College in Massachusetts. His father, Roswell Field, died when he was nineteen and he dropped out after eight months. Next he went to Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois, but dropped out after a year. Then he went to the University of Missouri, where his brother was also attending. He tried acting and studied law with little success. He then set off for a trip through Europe but returned to the United States six months later, penniless. Field then set to work as a journalist for the "Gazette" in Saint Joseph, Missouri, in 1875. The 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 become 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 "Tribune". [Below (1898), pp. 50-52.]

In 1883 Field moved to Chicago where he wrote a humorous newspaper column called "Sharps and Flats" for the Chicago Daily News. [Below (1898), pp. 57-58.] His home in Chicago was near the intersection of N. Clarendon and W. Hutchinson in the neighborhood now known as Buena Park. [Holden, Greg (2001). "Literary Chicago: A Book Lover's Tour of the Windy City". Lake Claremont Press, p. 153. ISBN 1893121011]

He first started publishing poetry in 1879, when his poem "Christmas Treasures" appeared in "A Little Book of Western Verse". [Below (1898), p. 58.] Over a dozen volumes of poetry followed and he became well known for his light-hearted poems for children, perhaps the most famous of which is "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod." Field also published a number of short stories, including "The Holy Cross" and "Daniel and the Devil."

(1939). "Illinois: A Descriptive and Historical Guide". A.C. McClurg & Co., p. 413.] although his 1901 biography by S. Thompson states that he was originally buried in Graceland Cemetery in Chicago. [Thompson, Slason (1901). "Eugene Field: A Study in Heredity and Contradictions". C. Scribner's Sons, p. 319.]

Several of his poems were set to music with commercial success. Many of his works were accompanied by paintings from Maxfield Parrish. His former home in St. Louis is now a museum. [Walker, Patricia Chambers, and Graham Thomas (1999). "Directory of Historic House Museums in the United States". Rowman Altamira, p. 196. ISBN 0742503445] A memorial to him, a statue of the "Dream Lady" from his poem, "Rock-a-by-Lady" (see lyrics, below), 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 neighborhood.

Field has his own star on the St. Louis Walk of Fame. [Danilov, Victor J. (1997). "Hall of Fame Museums: A Reference Guide". Greenwood Publishing Group, p. 211. ISBN 0313300003] Numerous elementary schools throughout the Midwest are named for him, e.g. Eugene Field Elementary School in Wheeling, Illinois, Park Ridge, Illinois, and St. Joseph, Missouri, ans Beaumont, Texas.

Field has been credited with one of the most devastating witticisms in the history of dramatic criticism. Reviewing an actor named Creston Clarke in the title role of "King Lear", Field commented of Clarke's performance that he "played the king as if under the momentary apprehension that somebody else was about to play the ace".

:The Rock-a-By Lady

:The Rock-a-By Lady from Hushaby Street:Comes stealing; comes creeping;:The poppies they hang from her head to her feet:And each hath a dream that is tiny and fleet -:She bringeth her poppies to you, my sweet,:When she findeth you sleeping!

:There is one little dream of a beautiful drum - :“Rub-a-dub!” it goeth;:There is one little dream of a big sugar-plum,:And lo! thick and fast the other dreams come:Of pop guns that band, and tin tops that hum,:And a trumpet that bloweth!

:And dollies peep out of those wee little dreams:With laughter and singing;:And boats go afloating on silvery streams,:and the stars peek-a-boo with their own misty gleams,:And up, up, and up where the Mother Moon beams:The fairies go winging!

:Would you dream all these dreams that are tiny and fleet?:They’ll come to you sleeping;:So shut the two eyes that are weary, my sweet,:For the Rock-a-By Lady from Hushaby Street,:With poppies that hang from her head to her feet,:Comes stealing; comes creeping.

ee also

*Nick Kenny
*O. O. McIntyre

References

External links

* [http://www.mediainformatics.biz/kidsbook/duel.html The Duel] The fairy tale, lushly illustrated in [http://mediainformatics.biz/kidsbook The Colorful Story Book] of 1941.
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* [http://www.compassrose.org/uptown/waller-lot-eugene-field.html Ballad of Waller Lot (Buena Park, Chicago)]
* [http://quiver.knox.edu/wynkenblynken "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod", Knox College's children's and young adult literary publication]
* [http://www.reelyredd.com/1001duel.htm "The Duel", aka The Gingham Dog and The Calico Cat] hear song version of the poem
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* [http://books.google.com/books?id=godM3MmfCPwC&pg=PA84&dq=lincoln+park+zoo+field&lr=&as_brr=1&ei=8q3JR-euB5GgygSBkP2nCQ&sig=ll7C8RYYWam4naujpw9p9x8jUA8#PPA85,M1 "Chicago: A Photographic Portrait", by Don Brown. Twin Lights Publishers (2005).] Photograph of the "Dream Lady" sculpture.
* [http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/research/fa/lffield.html Eugene Field Collection] at the Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin