Eugene Field and His AgeEugene Field (1850?95) is perhaps best remembered for his children's verse, especially "Little Boy Blue" and "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod." During his journalistic career, however, his column, "Sharps and Flats," in the Chicago Daily News illuminated the shenanigans of local and national politics, captured the excitement of baseball, and praised the cultural scene of Chicago and the West over that of the East Coast and Europe. Field used whimsy, satire, and, at times, unadorned admiration to depict and encapsulate the energy of a young nation reinventing itself and its political ambitions in the closing decades of the nineteenth century. Foremost, Field was a political observer. During his lifetime politics saw more public awareness and involvement than at any other time in American history, and Field's great popularity derived mainly from his near-ceaseless commentary?arch, outlandish, comic, serious?on that arena of affairs. Field also devoted many columns to entertainment and diversions, discussing the baseball "idiocy" that stormed Chicago and championing and criticizing authors and actors. |
Contents
The West | 8 |
Politics in Missouri | 37 |
Politics in the Nation | 89 |
Ball Games | 130 |
Theater | 163 |
The Literary Arena | 210 |
Parts of Speech 1 | 1 |
The Sentence 33 | 33 |
Sentence Errors 44 | 44 |
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actor adjective adverb American Anson apostrophe appeared attention August baseball chapter Chicago Daily Chicago Record clauses column comic comma County Democratic Denver Tribune depicted editor Emma Abbott Eugene Field example Field Papers Field wrote Garland group of words Grover Cleveland Hawthorne Henry Irving humor involved Irving January Jefferson City John Joseph Gazette Journal journalist Julian Hawthorne July June Kansas City Kelly later letter literary look Louis Democrat Louis Times-Journal matter Mechanics Missouri months newspaper noted noun November October offered Oscar Wilde party perhaps play plural poem poet political predicate prepositional phrase pronoun Publisher Grammar punctuation reader Republican Russell Schurz seems senator September Sharps and Flats Slason Thompson Stedman story tell tense theater theatrical things tion told Usage Name Date verb verse Victor Lawson Visscher West Weston Walch William writing York