AN AUTO-ANALYSIS

I was born in St. Louis, Mo., September 3d, 1850, the second and oldest surviving son of Roswell Martin and Frances (Reed) Field, both natives of Windham County, Vt.  Upon the death of my mother (1856), I was put in the care of my (paternal) cousin, Miss Mary Field French, at Amherst, Mass.

In 1865 I entered the private school of Rev. James Tufts, Monson, Mass., and there fitted for Williams College, which institution I entered as a freshman in 1868.  Upon my father’s death, in 1869, I entered the sophomore class of Knox College, Galesburg, Ill., my guardian, John W. Burgess, now of Columbia College, being then a professor in that institution.  But in 1870 I went to Columbia, Mo., and entered the State University there, and completed my junior year with my brother.  In 1872 I visited Europe, spending six months and my patrimony in France, Italy, Ireland, and England.  In May, 1873, I became a reporter on the St. Louis Evening Journal.  In October of that year I married Miss Julia Sutherland Comstock (born in Chenango County, N.Y.), of St. Joseph, Mo., at that time a girl of sixteen.  We have had eight children—­three daughters and five sons.

Ill-health compelled me to visit Europe in 1889; there I remained fourteen months, that time being divided between England, Germany, Holland, and Belgium.  My residence at present is in Buena Park, a north-shore suburb of Chicago.

My newspaper connections have been as follows:  1875-76, city editor of the St. Joseph (Mo.) Gazette; 1876-80, editorial writer on the St. Louis Journal and St. Louis Times-Journal; 1880-81, managing editor of the Kansas City Times; 1881-83, managing editor of the Denver Tribune.  Since 1883 I have been a contributor to the Chicago Record (formerly Morning News).

I wrote and published my first bit of verse in 1879; it was entitled “Christmas Treasures” (see “Little Book of Western Verse").  Just ten years later I began suddenly to write verse very frequently; meanwhile (1883-89) I had labored diligently at writing short stories and tales.  Most of these I revised half a dozen times.  One, “The Were-Wolf,” as yet unpublished, I have rewritten eight times during the last eight years.

  My publications have been, chronologically, as follows: 

  1.  “The Tribune Primer,” Denver, 1882. (Out of print, very scarce.)
  ("The Model Primer,” illustrated by Hoppin, Treadway, Brooklyn,
  1882.  A pirate edition.)

2.  “Culture’s Garland,” Ticknor, Boston, 1887. (Out of print.) “A Little Book of Western Verse,” Chicago, 1889. (Large paper, privately printed, and limited.) “A Little Book of Profitable Tales,” Chicago, 1889. (Large paper, privately printed, and limited.)

  3.  “A Little Book of Western Verse,” Scribners, New York, 1890.

  4.  “A Little Book of Profitable Tales,” Scribners, New York, 1890.