The San Francisco call., 1897-02-28

FAUGENE Field was an Unsuitable
fSlE* b. ibliomaniac. Rare books to him
@S were fad, and revel in library
where first editions awaited his caressing
touch was the poet -humorists widest dis
slpalon. Field had few idiosyncrasies for
. genius, but his love of extraordinary
books was an absorbing passion with him,
ana ouflng the time he spent in Califor-
q MA, when he came to the coast three years
ago IN pursuit of health, just prior 10 his
death, he would come 10 San Francisco
almost daily from his home in Oakland
and spend hours nosing about the old
bookstores of the City.
PcIing over an ancient tome was dissi-
patton TO Gene Field. There was no at
traction. for him in modern Bohemia.
There was no enjoyment Tor him in the
wine cup, nor in association with revelers
who found surcease from sorrow around
the festal board. And yet that disSipated
genius, Edgar Allan Poe, was Fields
greatest favorite among authors.
In his artistic proclivities the humorist
was always hsmpered by his lack OF
wealth. His inability to purchase every
treasure from a bibliomaniac's point OF
view was the bane OF his life. Field never
acquired riches, Notwithstanding the fact
that he was an fndefatia able worker, and
his comparative poverty caused him here
q IN San Francisco to lay aside, with a
sigh, volumes that had thrilled his biblio-
maniac soul, and which he longed to pos
sess.
Field told of his tribulations in this re-
. gard in a humorous skit which he wrote
after his return from Europe in 1890. The
first and last verses of the effusion read as
follows:
When was broke in ! ondon In the fall Of ss
i CHANGED TO spy in Oxford street this tanalizing
sign:
"a splendid Horace, cheap for cash" of course
had to look
Upon the vaunted bargain, and it was a noble
book.
. A finer one I've never seen. nor can hope to see
The first edition, richly bound, and
clean be;
And just to think. for three pound ten I might
have had that Pine,
When was broke in London in the fall of 's9.
When in the course of natural things go to my
reward.
Let imposing epitaphs my martyrdoms re-
Neither in Hebrew Latin, Greek or any classic
tongue
Let my ten Thousand triumphs over human
But in plain Anglo-Sa1on THAT he may know who
seeks
What agoniziug pangs I've had while on the
hunt for freaks),
Let there be writ upon the slab that marks my
grave this line:
deceased was broke in London in the fall of 49,"
Poor Field! Foregoing that Horace for
three pound ten" probably cost him
d many pangs before he died
In San Francisco he found a peculiarly
o ripe field for the qualification of his pas
sion for rare books. More rare and inter-
esting books are probably to be found
upon the shelves of the old bookstores in
San Francisco than in any similar con-
Germs on this con Qfinent with the excep-
.tion of New York. Many families who
came to California in the palmy days
Of '49 have been. forced through re-
verse circumstances to dispose of much
OF their personal property, and be-
cause OF this unfortunate condition of
affairs many rare and valuable books have
found their way into the "old bookstores.
Volumes that, because of their rarity and
antiquity, were really worth much, have
been allowed to go into the hands of sec
end:hand-book sellers for trife. MANY
i. a ''irst. edition. has bsen sold to these
dealers for so little as 25 cents bv peopIe
who had no realization of their true value
from. anartlstic point of view. 1t was in
poring over these that Gene Field found
his chiefeet pleasure when he came to this
coast in the hope that the hand of disease
then upon him might be stayed.
e There is an old book store on Powell
street where the poet spent many pleas