Eugene Field, a Study in Heredity and Contradictions — Volume 1

The poet who wrote "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" was not always whimsical. This early 20th-century biography ventures into the New England roots and family contradictions that shaped Eugene Field, the beloved children's poet who spent his life crafting verses of playful fantasy while carrying the weight of a stern Puritan inheritance. Slason Thompson traces Field's lineage through his prominent lawyer father, Roswell M. Field, excavating the tensions between duty and delight, gravitas and glee that defined a man who could write "Little Boy Blue" and yet struggle with the darker currents beneath his cheerful surface. Volume One focuses on heredity and upbringing, setting the stage for understanding how a man built from such contradictions became the poet America knew and loved. For readers curious about the making of an American literary figure, or anyone who suspects that the lightest verse often grows from the heaviest soil.