Eugene Field (1850 - 1895) was an American writer best known for his children's poetry and humorous essays. He tried acting and studied law with little success. He then went on a six-month tour of Europe. Field eventually settled in Missouri as a journalist and editor. His articles were known for their humorous and gossipy style. He later moved to Chicago where he published over a dozen volumes of poetry and short stories. Some of the poems in the collection include Casey's table d'hote, Our Lady of the Mine, The conversazzhyony, Prof. Verb de Blaw, Marthy's Younkit, Old English lullaby,...

This early work by Eugene Field was originally published in 1911 and we are now republishing it as part of our Cryptofiction Classics series. 'The Werewolf' is a short story set in Saxon Britain and involves significant lycanthropy. The Cryptofiction Classics series contains a collection of wonderful stories from some of the greatest authors in the genre, including Ambrose Bierce, Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert Louis Stevenson, and Jack London. From its roots in cryptozoology, this genre features bizarre, fantastical, and often terrifying tales of mythical and legendary creatures. Whether it be...

Shut your eyes while mother sings Of wonderful sights that be, And you shall see the beautiful things As you rock in the misty sea, Where the old shoe rocked the fishermen three: Wynken, Blynken, and Nod. In this whimsically illustrated rendition of Eugene Field's timeless lullaby, Coral Keehn lights a starlit path for sleepy readers through the night sky of a wonder filled dreamscape.

Christmas is the most famous holiday of the year, and the word itself evokes images of Santa Claus, Christmas trees, lights, the baby Jesus, and, of course, presents. Instantly, well known Christmas carols ring in your ears, or maybe you even picture nutcrackers or Scrooge and Tiny Tim. Christmas has been popular for centuries, and it only continues to get more popular today, with Christmas season extending months in advance of December 25. And though much has been written of Christmas, its exact origins are still mysterious. Historians are unsure what date Jesus was born on, or whether...

Why do the bells of Christmas ring? Why do little children sing? Once a lovely shining star, Seen by shepherds from afar, Gently moved until its light Made a manger's cradle bright. There a darling baby lay, Pillowed soft upon the hay

The determination to found a story or a series of sketches on the delights, adventures, and misadventures connected with bibliomania did not come impulsively to my brother. For many years, in short during the greater part of nearly a quarter of a century of journalistic work, he had celebrated in prose and verse, and always in his happiest and most delightful vein, the pleasures of book-hunting. Himself an indefatigable collector of books, the possessor of a library as valuable as it was interesting, a library containing volumes obtained only at the cost of great personal sacrifice, he was in...

Sing, Christmas bells Say to the earth this is the morn Whereon our Savior-King is born; Sing to all men, -the bond, the free, The rich, the poor, the high, the low, The little child that sports in glee, The aged folk that tottering go, - Proclaim the morn That Christ is born, That saveth them and saveth m

The Rock-a-By Lady from Hushaby street Comes stealing; comes creeping; The poppies they hang from her head to her

Whilst you were sleeping, little Dear-my-soul, strange things happened; but that I saw and heard them, I should never have believed them. The clock stood, of course, in the corner, a moonbeam floated idly on the floor, and a little mauve mouse came from the hole in the chimney corner and frisked and scampered in the light of the moonbeam upon the floor.