Kate Field: The Many Lives of a Nineteenth-Century American Journalist. Gary Scharnhorst. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2008. 306 pp. $27.95 hbk.

This biography fully explores the life of a fascinating nineteenth-century independent woman journalist. She was a publicist, an entrepreneur, and a journalist. She died pursuing a story.

Kate Field’s parents were stage artists, although her father moved between the theatrical and journalistic worlds. Kate was an only child who always aspired to the stage and who, from time to time, performed, although rarely to hearty reviews. She was a success, however, on the lecture circuit, due both to her reputation and stage ability.

Many of Kate Field’s letters have been destroyed, presenting a particular challenge to this biographer, University of New Mexico English Professor Gary Scharnhorst, who relied almost entirely on published sources. [Read more...]