Christmas Tales and Christmas Verse

Eugene Field was a popular humorist and newspaperman often called the "Poet of Childhood." Born in St. Louis, Missouri, to Roswell M. and Frances Reed Field, both of New England ancestry, Field claimed two birthdates-2 and 3 September 1850-in later years so that if friends forgot him on the first day, they could remember him on the second. His father was an attorney and attained some fame after serving as lawyer to Dred Scott, a slave who fought for his freedom, before Scott's trial went to the Supreme Court. Field's mother died when he was six, and he and his younger brother Roswell were sent to Amherst, Massachusetts, to be cared for by their paternal cousin Mary Field French until their maturity.