Eugene Field

Eugene Field 1850-95, American poet and journalist, b. St. Louis. After working on several Midwestern newspapers, in 1883 he became a columnist for the Chicago Daily News (later the Record ). His urbane and witty column, "Sharps and Flats," which appeared until his death, was a potpourri of whimsical humor, commentary on politics and personalities, and children's verse. His books include A Little Book of Western Verse (1889) and Echoes from the Sabine Farm (with his brother Roswell Martin Field, 1892). His children's poems include "Little Boy Blue" and "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod."

Bibliography: See biographies by S. Thompson (2 vol., 1927, repr. 1973) and R. Conrow (1974).

Field, Eugene (1850–95), born in St. Louis, always considered himself a Westerner, and, in his writings for the Denver Tribune and his column Sharps and Flats in the Chicago Daily News (1883–95), showed his special province to be the journalization of literature. He filled his column with whimsical humor and with verse—often in real or imaginary dialects—that appealed to the popular taste in humor and sentiment. Among his best‐known poems are the sentimental Little Boy Blue and the Dutch Lullaby (Wynken, Blynken, and Nod), both set to music by Reginald DeKoven and also by Ethelbert Nevin. His collections of newspaper contributions include A Little Book of Western Verse (1889), A Little Book of Profitable Tales (1889), With Trumpet and Drum (1892), A Second Book of Verse (1892), The Holy Cross and Other Tales (1893), The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac (1896), and The House (1896).

Roswell Martin Field (1851–1919), his brother, had a parallel career as journalist and music and dramatic critic. The two collaborated on a volume of paraphrases of Horace, Echoes from the Sabine Farm (1892).