ARCHIVE OF LETTERS TO HIS WIFE WITH MANUSCRIPT POEM AND MISCELLANEOUS

First Edition. Letters. Contents Fine; binding with minor wear and Near Fine. A collection of 8 handwritten SIGNED letters to his wife, a handwritten SIGNED letter to a Mr. Lawson, a SIGNED MANUSCRIPT poem, a SIGNED portrait photograph, a SIGNED portrait etching, and miscellaneous pieces by Field, some neatly laid down, most tipped-in, in a 10" x 12" full black flexible morocco leather book with gilt lettering on the front cover and spine: "Eugene Field/Autographs." The poem is his "A Valentine to My Wife" and has a few minor changes from the published version. The letters to his wife are mostly dated 1872 and 1873, before he and Julia Comstock were married in 1875, with two dated later--1887 and 1889. In the first letter of 4 pages from Paris, numbered as "6" and dated 19 November 1872, SIGNED in full, Field describes being at the Louvre with Edgar (Julia's brother) and how they will be going to Nice. "Is it not a happy thought, that that time is not very far distant? Indeed, it is much farther than I wish it were, but whatever is your wish is my will and if you think it better that we should not marry for two years, I very cheerfully submit to your good pleasure." The second letter of 2 pages from Nice is numbered "7" and dated 6 January 1872 [likely he meant December or 1873] is SIGNED "Field." Field elaborates on his love for Julia: "I think you the most lovely woman upon earth and assuredly there is no other one nor could be any other one whom I so idolize and love." The third letter, dated 22 November 1872 from Nice and also numbered "7," is 4 pages and SIGNED in full with the envelope present. Field describes arriving in Nice and his accommodations. "I do not wonder that Virgil and Tasso and Dante were inspired to sing the wonders of poesy they have left us, or still later, the sensual yet delightful Byron, and the unfortunate Shelley. The Mediterranean lies before us, and the waves roll rip and break upon the beach not more than one hundred yards from our pension." The fourth letter, dated 23 November 1872 and numbered "8," is 4 pages and SIGNED in full. He describes in detail the horses in the area: "I think the horses of this country, so far as I have been able to judge, far surpass those of America." The fifth letter, dated 19 December 1872 and numbered "12," is 2 pages and SIGNED in full. "When I feel sad and lonely and have no one to cheer me, my greatest solace is my pen. For it seems a comfort to confide to one I love, the true feelings of my heart." The sixth letter is on Saint Louis Daily Journal stationery and dated 24 June 1873. It is 2 pages with the envelope and SIGNED "E. Field." "Jule, I want you to write me as often as you can. By this I do mean more than two letters a day-- for I am well aware that this is warm weather and people do not feel disposed to spend their time in writing." The seventh letter is the first that, as with the manuscript poem, is written in Field's small, delicate hand. It is one page and dated 16 November 1887 from Chicago. "I await your return with conflicting emotions, viz:: joy and fear. I have struggled hard to comply with the regulations you laid down when you went away, but I am a weak creature when you are not present to inspire me with fortitude. If you were to stay away a month longer, we would all have to go to the poor house. Still it is sweet to feel that I shall be forgiven, for woman's love is boundless, her pity limitless, her mercy unfathomable. It should plead strongly in my behalf that aside from the one gross and worldly particular of finance, I have been as circumspect as Christ. Come home, dear girl, to your lonely and penitent me." The eighth and last letter to his wife, or possibly to a lover as it is addressed to "Miss Jansen" but SIGNED as "Ezra J. Mc illams," is dated 31 January 1889 from New Bedford on one page with a small ORIGINAL DRAWING of the author as Cupid. In full: "Pray to me the favor to accept the accompanying 'volume bound in calf with the (?) inside.' The other book has been left with me to deliver to your; of its merits I know naught whatsoever. I shall try to post some appropriate verses in the album which you send and I shall return the souvenir to you before you leave the village. I have been foraging all day in the hope of finding Fr. Bishop, but that misguided person is as evasive as the Irish man's flea. Why will you continually remind me of our prospective Sybaritual, our eventual Paphian saturnalia? Egad, the very thought of it thrills me from my scalplock to my sigmoid (?)! Adieu, fair polyandrous nymph." With a postscript: "Post scriptum: The Cupid is, as you are, after Ezra type. Fat Cupids are horrid, aren't they?" The final letter, to Mr. Lawson, is dated 9 January 1895 on the verso of a post card and is a short list of debts he wishes to pay.

Eugene Field (1850-1895) wrote children's poetry and light, humorous articles written in a gossipy style. Among his best-known light-hearted poems are "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod" and "Little Boy Blue." (Inventory #: 021806)