Eugene Field

Born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1850, Eugene Field became a journalist, humorist, and poet. After leaving college without graduating, he worked for newspapers in Missouri, Denver, and Chicago, where he wrote the popular column “Sharps and Flats” for the Chicago Morning News.

Field published more than a dozen volumes, including A Little Book of Western Verse and Love Songs of Childhood. His nostalgic, whimsical poems—among them “Wynken, Blynken, and Nod” and “The Sugar-Plum Tree”—earned him the lasting nickname “Poet of Childhood,” although he also wrote humorous essays and other works for adults.

Field died in Chicago in 1895 at the age of forty-five. His warm, musical poetry and affectionate view of childhood have kept his work in print and in readers’ memories for generations.