He used the magazine effectively to disseminate New England culture to the nation and, not coincidentally, to give his authors an additional source of revenue and increased exposure to a broader public. Fields had literary aspirations himself, in his youth writing sentimental and occasional poetry and, after retirement, reminiscences of the authors he had published. But his major achievement remained his publication and promotion of the works of others and cultivation of a wider readership, particularly for American literature.
James Thomas Fields was born on 31 December 1817 in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, the first of two sons of Michael and Margaret (Beck) Fields. His father, captain of a ship, was seldom home and died of a fever in New Orleans when James was two. His widowed mother was apparently affectionate, pious, and supportive of his education. Fields finished the available high school curriculum before moving to Boston in 1831 at the age of thirteen to serve as a clerk in the bookstore of Timothy H.
