JAMES T. FIELDS.
The old "corner book-store" at the intersection of Washington and School
Streets, in the city of Boston, is one of the most notable places in the
New England metropolis. The memory of the oldest inhabitant can not
recall a time when this corner was not devoted to its present uses; and
around it, in the long years that have passed since the first book
merchant first displayed his wares here, there have gathered a host of
the most interesting, as well as the most brilliant, souvenirs of our
literary history. Here were sold, in "the days that tried men's souls,"
those stirring pamphlets that sounded the death-knell of British tyranny
in the New World; and it was from this old corner that the tender songs
of Longfellow, the weird conceptions of Hawthorne, the philosophic
utterances of Emerson, first found their way to the hearts of the
people.
In 1884, the corner book-store was kept by Carter & Bendee, and was then
the leading book-house in Boston. One morning in that year there entered
the office of the proprietors a young lad from New Hampshire, who stated
that he came to seek employment in their service. His bright,
intelligent appearance was in his favor, scarcely less than the
testimonials which he brought, vouching for his integrity and industry.
His application was successful, and he entered the service of Messrs.
Carter & Bendee, being given the lowest clerkship in the establishment
and a salary barely sufficient to support him.
This lad was JAMES T. FIELDS. He was born in Portsmouth, New Hampshire,
on the 30th of December, 1820. His father was a captain in the merchant
service, and died when the boy was only four years old, leaving him to
the care and guidance of one of the best of mothers. He was educated at
the common schools of the city, and was thence transferred to the high
school. He exhibited a remarkable fondness for study, and at the early
age of thirteen graduated at the high school, taking the first honors of
his class. He was regarded as one of the best classical scholars in the
institution, and during his course took several prizes in Latin and
Greek composition. Unusual abilities as a poet were also manifested very
early, and when but twelve years old he wrote a poem in blank verse,
which attracted the attention of the late Chief Justice Woodbury, then
Governor of New Hampshire, who was so much surprised and gratified to
find such talent in so young a boy, that he earnestly advised him to
endeavor to complete his studies at Harvard University. This, indeed,
was the chief desire of the boy, but a collegiate education required
means which he could not command, and he was forced to go out into the
world to seek his fortune. Having secured a good elementary education,
however, he was resolved that he would not abandon his efforts to
acquire knowledge. All his leisure time, after going to Boston to live,
was devoted to reading and study. While neglecting no duty in his
business, he gave the hours which most boys devote to amusement to
severe mental labor. Young as he was, he was ambitious.
He knew that knowledge was power, especially in the community in which
he lived, and he was resolved that this power should be his. The result
is plainly seen in his subsequent career. Although deprived of the
advantages of a collegiate course, Mr. Fields has more than made up that
deficiency by his faithful labors, and there are few men in New England
to-day possessed of more varied and extensive mental accomplishments
than he. Upon going to Boston he promptly identified himself with the
Mercantile Library Association of that place, availing himself of its
advantages, and exerting all the influence of which he was possessed to
insure its success. When but eighteen years old, he was chosen to
deliver an anniversary poem before the association. The value of the
compliment will be better appreciated by the reader when it is stated
that the oration upon that occasion was pronounced by Edward Everett.
His industry in his business duties was great. He entered the house of
Carter & Bendee with the determination to rise in it. He worked
faithfully, and was the first at his post in the morning, and the last
to leave it at night. When the style of the firm was changed to Allen &
Ticknor, he was promoted to a more important place. He proved himself
from the first one of the most valuable and trustworthy assistants in
the house, and his merits were promptly recognized. From the lowest
place in the house, he worked his way up steadily until he became the
manager of the establishment. Each promotion brought with it an increase
of salary. Knowing well that "a penny saved at present is a pound gained
in future" to a young man striving to rise in the world, he practiced
the most conscientious economy. He made himself thoroughly acquainted
with every detail of the publishing trade; and although, of late years,
he has had the supervision more especially of the literary department of
his large business, there are few publishers in this country more
intimate with the business and mechanical branches of their trade.
In 1846, just twelve years after his entrance into the house, his
clerkship came to an end, and he became a partner in the establishment,
the style of the firm being Ticknor & Fields. He took an active share in
the business; and while full credit must be given to Mr. Ticknor for the
extraordinary success which the firm enjoyed, it can not be denied that
Mr. Fields' share in this work was very great, and fully equal to that
of his partner. His acknowledged literary abilities won him friends
among the most gifted writers of the country, and these naturally sought
his assistance in presenting their works to the world. Their friendship
induced an intelligent confidence in his literary taste and mercantile
integrity, and it was a decided gain for them to secure one so generally
esteemed and trusted as their publisher. Young writers, still struggling
for fame, felt that in submitting their works to his inspection they
would receive the patient examination of not only a conscientious
reader, but of one whose own literary abilities rendered him unusually
competent for the task. The public generally learned to share this
confidence in his literary judgment. And so it came to pass that the
imprint of Ticknor & Fields was universally accepted as a sufficient
guarantee of the excellence of any book, and rarely failed to insure its
success. Naturally, the house was proud of this confidence, and it is
pleasant to record that they have never abused it. There is, perhaps, no
other publishing firm in the Union whose catalogue is so free from
objectionable or worthless publications as that issued by this house.
Gradually Messrs. Ticknor & Fields became the recognized publishers of a
large number of the leading writers of this country and of Great
Britain. In their catalogue we find the names of Longfellow, Bryant,
Whittier, Holmes, Aldrich, Agassiz, Beecher, Alice Gary, Cummins, Dana,
Emerson, Hawthorne, Gail Hamilton, Lowell, Parton, Saxe, Sprague, Stowe,
Bayard Taylor, Thoreau, and Tuckerman, in American literature; and in
English literature, the names of Browning, Dickens, George Eliot, Mrs.
Jameson, Kingsley, Owen Meredith, Charles Reade, and Tennyson. With
their English authors they maintain the pleasantest relations,
recognizing their moral right to their works, and paying them a fair
royalty upon the sales of their books. Of their relations with their
American authors, a popular periodical says:
"There are no business men more honorable or generous than the
publishers of the United States, and especially honorable and
considerate toward authors. The relation usually existing between author
and publisher in the United States is that of a warm and lasting
friendship, such as now animates and dignifies the intercourse between
the literary men of New England and Messrs. Ticknor & Fields.... The
relation, too, is one of a singular mutual trustfulness. The author
receives his semi-annual account from the publisher with as ablute a
faith in its correctness as though he had himself counted the volumes
sold."
In 1865, the firm removed from the old corner stand to a new and elegant
establishment on Tremont Street, near the Common, and in the same year
Mr. Howard Ticknor, who had succeeded his father in the business,
withdrew from it. New partners were admitted, and the style of the firm
became Fields, Osgood & Co., Mr. Fields still remaining at the head of
the house.
The new book store is one of the handsomest and most attractive in the
country. The store proper is eighty feet deep by fifty feet wide, and is
fitted up handsomely in hard wood.
There is no paint about it, every piece of wood in use presenting its
natural appearance. On the right in entering are the book shelves and
counters, and on the opposite side the desks devoted to the magazine
department. At the rear are the counting rooms and the private office of
Mr. J.R. Osgood, the active business man of the concern. The second
story is elegantly and tastefully fitted up. It contains the luxurious
private office of Mr. Fields, in which are to be seen excellent
likenesses of his two dearest friends, Longfellow and Dickens; and the
parlor of the establishment, which is known as the Author's Room. This
is a spacious and handsomely-appointed room, whose windows, overlooking
the Common, command one of the prettiest views in New England. It is
supplied with the leading periodicals of the day, and choice volumes of
current literature. Here one may always find one or more of the "gifted
few," whose names are familiar to the reader; and frequent reunions of
the book-making fraternity are designed to be held here, under the
genial auspices of the literary partner of the house.
It is not often that men win success in both literature and mercantile
life. Good authors have usually made very poor business managers, and
_vice versa_; but the subject of this memoir, besides winning a great
success as a merchant, and that in one of the most hazardous branches of
mercantile life, has also won an enviable reputation as a man of
letters. His poems have made him well known, both in this country and in
England. Besides the poems recited before various literary associations,
he has published two volumes of fugitive pieces. The first appeared in
1843, while he was still a clerk, and the second in 1858. His poems
abound in humor, pathos, and a delicate, beautiful fancy. One of his
friends has said of him:
"Little of the sad travail of the historic poet has Mr. Fields known.
Of the emaciated face, the seedy garment, the collapsed purse, the
dog-eared and often rejected manuscript, he has never known, save from
well-authenticated tradition. His muse was born in sunshine, and has
only been sprinkled with the tears of affection. Every effort has been
cheered to the echo, and it is impossible for so genial a fellow to fail
of an ample and approving audience for whatever may fall from his lip or
pen."
The following lines, from his second volume, will serve as a specimen of
the "homely beauty" of Mr. Fields' muse, though it hardly sets forth all
his powers:
She came among the gathering crowd
A maiden fair, without pretense,
And when they asked her humble name,
She whispered mildly, "Common Sense."
Her modest garb drew every eye,
Her ample cloak, her shoes of leather;
And when they sneered, she simply said,
"I dress according to the weather."
They argued long and reasoned loud,
In dubious Hindoo phrase mysterious;
While she, poor child, could not divine
Why girls so young should be so serious.
They knew the length of Plato's beard,
And how the scholars wrote in Laturn;
She studied authors not so deep,
And took the Bible for her pattern.
And so she said, "Excuse me, friends,
I feel all have their proper places,
And _Common Sense_ should stay at home
With cheerful hearts and smiling faces."
Mr. Fields has been a frequent contributor to his own periodicals, his
latest effort being a paper devoted to personal recollections of Charles
Dickens, which was published in the "Atlantic Monthly" soon after the
death of the great master.
He has made several extended tours throughout Europe, where he has
enjoyed social advantages rarely opened to travelers. One of his friends
says that, in his first visit to the Old World, "he passed several
months in England, Scotland, France, and Germany, visiting the principal
places of interest, and forming most delightful and profitable
intimacies with the most distinguished _literateurs_ of the day. He was
a frequent guest at the well-known breakfasts of the great banker-poet
of 'The Pleasures of Memory' and of 'Italy,' and listened or added his
own contributions to the exuberant riches of the hour, when such
visitors as Talfourd, Dickens, Moore, and Landor were the talkers." He
also formed a warm friendship with Wordsworth, and, during his stay in
Edinburgh, with Professor Wilson and De Quincey. The writings of the
last-named author were published by Ticknor and Fields, in eighteen
volumes, and were edited by Mr. Fields, at the author's own request.
Mr. Fields is now in his fiftieth year, but shows no sign of age, save
the whitening of his heavy, curling beard. He is still young and active
in mind and body. He is of medium height, and well proportioned, with an
erect carriage. Polished and courteous in manner, he is easily
accessible to all. To young writers he is especially kind, and it is a
matter of the truest pleasure to him to seek out and bring to notice
genuine literary merit. He has a host of friends, and is widely popular
with all classes.
V.
EDITORS.