Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1881-09-09
James IT. Fields Bookstore.

1t was very remarkable group OF
men-iudeed, il WAS the first group CT
really great American suthors-wiicii
familiarly froquented the corner rs the
guests of Fields. There:hsd been Dry
ant ard Irving aid Cooper ard Hal
leck AMI Paulding ana Willis i'll New
York. but there Lad been nothing like
the New England circle. 1t was that
circle which compelled the world to &C
knowledge that there was an American
literature. or most Of these authors
the house at the conner came to be the
publishers, and to the end they main
tanned the warmest relations with Fields,
who Was not their publisher only, but
their appreciative and sympathetic
friend. His kindred taste made him
q faithful student of English literatur re,
and almost as boy he read poems
of his own upon pablo occasions. and
published a volume or two, which
were his credentials to membership in
the guild. Later, his lectures upon
English authors, many of whom he
personally knew, were very entertaining
and suggestive, like the charming con-
versation of one who has seen with OBJ
serving and sympathetic eyes those o!
whom all men gladly hear.
The signlar attraction of Fields for
widely different natures was shown by
the affection entertained for him by two
men so different as Hawthorne and
Dickens. In his later years, Haw.
thOrne's home in Boston was generally
Fields house, and Dickens would
hardly have made his second and most
triumphant and profitable visit to this
country except for Fields, who was his
"next friend" throughout the tour.
Dickens speaks of him most kindly IN
one of the monumental Traveller ,
papers. after his return to England. Ii
was certainly remarkable that Dickens,
who, twenty five years before, had gone
home from his first visit Indignant be
cause we would not pay him copyright
upon his works, which We universally
read aud epjoYed-uni his Complain;
was most jus.-shouid have gone home
from his second visit with more noney
made in shorter time than any foreign
author ever collected from us before
Fields service to him was immense, and
Dickens was sincerely grateful.
Alas! such talk is but Q reminis
cence of yesterdays with authors.
Fields himself was sixty-four years ole
when he died; but there was such es
sential and iudefeasib.. youth in hi.
feelings and temperament THAI, even :
fatal and painful, malady couii Lo
quench it. On the very day, or III.
day before. he died he vent over III eet
Aldrich-for he WAS the friend Of the
younger as of the older Authors and j
is q deep satisfaction to know that the
end was as painless as it was sudden
sitting in his chair at evening in The
midst of friends, and listening to the
voice that was the sweetest of sIl music
to his heart. Long before he had lief
the old corner and the curtained nook
and had gone to NOR. stately publish
ing quarters. From ;i,'se also he hat
withdrawn some Years ago. leaving
business altogether, and devoting him
self thencefotward to lecturiug. Ba
the hos itabl, heart made his beautiful
home what that curtained nook baG
been. Younger men we're taking tn
places of those that Ioitered in the oil
book store, but they found in the hom
the old corner welcome, and they viii
understa nd why their elder brethren
recall with such fond ami regretful af
lection the curtained nook at the oil,
corner, and the kind heart and gener
GUS hand that made it so memorable
Editors Easy Chair, in Harper's.