fames T. Fields.
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��uaeum, had a quiet nook for him, where he made himself early acquaiut- ed with its treasures.
Yet like most youth he was glad to begin in Boston manhood's tasks. Easily mastering the duties of his position, with singular alertness and intelligence, he advanced steadily, betraying rare insight and ability. He could tell what books would be popular, and could divine, as a per- son came into the store, what book he wanted, and would produce it, rarely mistaking. Other pleasant du- ties and associations and refined pleasures he had. He formed new friendships, also, perhai)s chiefost of which among the earlier ones was that with Mr. lildwin P. AVhipple, af- terward the distinguished essayist, whose recent death brings into more prominent notice his genius and his notable work as critic and reviewer. After the death of Mr. Fields, Mr. Whipple contributed to the Atlantic interesting recollections of his friend, from which we quote briefly :
" My acquaintance with Fields be- gan at the Boston Mercantile Library Association, when we were boys of eighteen or nineteen. It happened that both of us were inflamed by a passionate love of literature, and by a cordial admiration of men of let- ters ; that we had read — of course superficially — most of the leading poets and prose-writers of Great Britain, and had a tolerably correct idea of their chronological succession. One of the most notable facts in the lives of clerks with literary tastes and moderate salaries is the mysterious way in which they contrive to collect books. Among the members of the Mercantile Library Association, Thom-
��as R. Gould (now known as one of the most eminent of American sculp- tors), F'ields, and myself, had vphat we called libraries before we were twenty-one. Gould was a clerk in a dry goods jobbing-house. Fields in a bookstore, I in a broker's office. F'ields's colle(;tion much exceeded Gould's and mine, for he had in his room two or three hundred volumes, the nucleus of a library which event- ually became one of the choicest pri- vate collections of books, manuscripts, and autographs in the city."
It is to this friend that Mr. Fields seems to have dedicated a small vol- ume of his poems, privately printed, entitled " A Few Verses for a Few Friends." It must be to this volume of poems that the poet Whittier refers in his lines "To J. T. F." This early friendship is made the more memorable and significant bv the not dissimilar life-work of these friends. To Mr. Whipple, in the funeral eulo- gy of his friend. Dr. Bartol, was ac- corded the distinction of being "a man than whom none speaking the English tongue has done more in our generation to keep the genius of others fresh in our recollections and bright in our eyes."
In 1845 Mr. Fields became a part- ner in the store where he had for so many years been a clerk, " the Old Corner Book-Store," at the corner of School and Washington streets. For many years he stood at the head of this growing and increasingly influen- tial publishing house. It held, from the first, a unique })osition, and ex- erted a singular authority in New England letters. It was a rallying- place for authors, and its prestige and its patronage must often have
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