Exhibition

Eugene Field's Our Debt to Monkish Men

Eugene Field. Our Debt to Monkish Men. Yellow Barn Press, 1987. Wood-engravings by John DePol. Eugene Field, "the Poet of Childhood," was born in St. Louis in 1850. After attending several colleges, more as a socializer than a serious student, he wrote for several newspapers, including the Denver Tribune, where his humorous and satirical essays gained him a wide audience. In 1883 he moved to Chicago to write for the Chicago Morning News, where his daily column, "Sharps and Flats," satirized the materialistic aspects of contemporary society. In 1888 he published a children's poem, "Little Boy Blue," and because of its tremendous success, he followed it with an outpouring of poems such as "The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat" and "Wynken, Blynken and Nod." Among his works for adults were Echoes from a Sabine Farm and The Love Affairs of a Bibliomaniac (published posthumously in 1896), from which Our Debt to Monkish Men derives. Field died from heart failure in 1895. Our Debt to Monkish Men was published by the Yellow Barn Press in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 1986. Neil Shaver, the owner and printer of the press, collaborated with John DePol on the design of the book. In this work Eugene Field wrote of the collecting passions of Richard du Bury, a 14th century bishop, who used his position at court to acquire countless rare and beautiful books. To reflect the medieval nature of the text, Shaver chose an uncial type, and DePol created illustrations from wood in the style of early printed books. The Book of the Month is curated by Kenneth Lavender, Rare Book Librarian.