FIELD, EUGENE (1850-1895), American poet, was born in St. Louis (Mo.), Sept. 3, 1850. Because of an error, Field thought., until the last years of his life, as is shown by his autobiographical notes and by the date appended to his birthday poem "Thirty-Nine," that the day of his birth was Sept. 2. As a young child, after his mother's death, he was taken by relatives to Amherst (Mass.), where he passed his boyhood. Though educated mainly in a private school, he attended in turn Williams and Knox colleges and the University of Missouri, remaining but a few months in each and taking no degree. His early inclination was toward the stage, but his facility as a satirical writer, which was manifest even in early youth, gave him ready employment in journalism, first on a St. Louis newspaper and later in turn on newspapers in St. Joseph, Kansas City and Denver. For them he wrote brilliant paragraphs, fantastic sketches, and humorous verse. In 1883 he joined the editorial staff of The Chicago News (later The Chicago Record).
From that time until his death, Nov. 4, 1895, he contributed to The Daily News paragraphs on a great variety of subjects, humor ous and satirical articles, serious poems and light verse. At first his work was notable mainly for its caustic humour and audacity, his fancy leading him into grotesque inventions that ostensibly set forth absurd views or described preposterous actions of well known persons. A collection of these effusions was republished in a volume (Culture's Garland, Boston, 1887). The book was re ceived with such favour that its author was encouraged to attempt serious work. In 1888 his best known poem "Little Boy Blue" appeared. There followed many others, a considerable number of which were written for or about children, and these attained in stant popularity. In 1889 was privately printed a collection of his poems entitled A Little Book of Western Verse (Chicago), along with a volume of his prose stories, A Little Book of Profitable Tales (Chicago). A year later these books were published in New York, and had a large sale. Other volumes of poems fol lowed: A Second Book of Verse (1892) ; With Trumpet and Drum (1892); and Love Songs of Childhood 0894). In 5892 Echoes from the Sabine Farm was privately printed. The rhymed translations from Horace composing its contents were partly by Field and partly by his brother Roswell (1851-1919) . The year after Field's death, his collected works were published in ten vol umes, and in 1901 two more volumes were added. His poems of childhood have maintained their hold on the popular heart. In general, his poems are marked by a fine metrical quality, but not by originality of thought or expression. His prose writings are of distinctly less merit, being somewhat laboured and mechanical. Chief of his prose writings in a lighter vein is The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac. (C. H. D.) See The Life of Eugene Field, by Slasen Thompson (1927), Eugene Field's Creative Years, by Charles H. Dennis (1924), and the intro ductions to the several volumes of Field's collected works.