Autographs
Original Hand-written Manuscript Poem by American Poet Whose Father Helped Dred Scott - Eugene Field !
EUGENE FIELD, American Poet and Journalist best known for children’s poetry and humorous essays, Whose Father Represented Dred Scott.
September 23, 1891-Dated, Original Bound with Hardcover Autograph Manuscript (Not Signed), 3 pages, measuring about 7” x 5” with added pencil notations: “Save copy for Field”, being written by the printer, Choice Very Fine. This manuscript is affixed to pages within a part leather-bound custom book, with the Gilt Embossed Title: “IN PRAISE OF CONTENTMENT. EUGENE FIELD. ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT.” The book itself measuring 11.75” x 9” with blue leather and blue cloth binding that is lightly worn from actual use.

The enclosed Original Poem consists of eight stanzas, five verses each, with the title illuminated, as are the first letter of the first word of each stanza. The manuscript is followed by seven printed stanzas of the poem, “Horace’s Odes III, 1.” The rest of the bound volume contains several blank pages. The notations and a few fingerprints on the manuscript suggest that this was the printer’s copy.

Known as “The Children’s Poet,” many of Eugene Field’s poems were accompanied by paintings by Maxfield Parrish. Field (1850-1895) was a successful newspaper columnist, poet and humorous essayist, whose father, Roswell Martin Field, represented enslaved African American Dred Scott, who unsuccessfully sued for his freedom when he reached the North in the 1850s.
Eugene Field, (1850-1895). American writer and journalist, best known for children’s poetry and humorous essays. Field worked as a journalist, was a managing editor of the Kansas City Times, editor of the Denver Tribune, and wrote a humorous column called Sharps and Flats for the Chicago Daily News. His poems were set to music and many of his works were accompanied by paintings by Maxfield Parrish. His former home in St. Louis is now a museum. Field's father, Roswell Martin Field, represented Dred Scott, the enslaved African American who sued for his freedom. Field filed the complaint on behalf of Scott in the federal court in St. Louis, Missouri, and the case ultimately reached the U.S. Supreme Court—which ruled against Scott in 1857.