Rachel Field Biography Quotes 5 Report mistakes

Early Life
Rachel Lyman Field was an American writer whose work bridged poetry, plays, children's books, and adult fiction. Born in 1894 and raised in a milieu steeped in New England traditions, she developed an early affinity for the landscapes and seacoasts of Maine and Massachusetts. That sensibility, nurtured by long periods spent on islands and along working harbors, would inform her settings and characters throughout her career. Though she came of age at a time when women's literary ambitions were often constrained, she pursued formal study and training in writing and theater, and began placing poems and short pieces in magazines while still young. The austere beauty and practical rhythms of New England life became not only a source of imagery for her poems but also the backbone of her stories for both children and adults.

Early Career and Literary Formation
Field's first notable successes were as a poet and playwright. Her early poems balance musicality with a close attention to everyday detail, an approach that made her work feel accessible while retaining depth. She also tried her hand at playwriting, producing works for community and school stages, where she learned how dialogue and scene could carry emotion and story. That attention to voice would become one of her hallmarks as a storyteller. As her reputation grew, she developed steady relationships with illustrators and publishers, a collaboration-oriented path that would soon bear fruit in children's books distinguished by strong narrative voices and carefully paired art.

Children's Literature
Field achieved a landmark in American children's literature with Hitty, Her First Hundred Years (1930), the imagined memoir of a small wooden doll whose travels create a panoramic view of American life. The book's thoughtful construction and historical texture were enhanced by the work of the illustrator Dorothy P. Lathrop, whose fine-line drawings became inseparable from the text in the minds of many readers. The novel earned the Newbery Medal, placing Field at the forefront of children's authors of her generation. She followed with other notable works for young readers, including a historical novel set in Maine that would be recognized as a Newbery Honor. A few years later, Field's gentle and luminous text for Prayer for a Child, illustrated by Elizabeth Orton Jones, further demonstrated her gift for plain-spoken, resonant language. That collaboration, published shortly before and celebrated shortly after her death, underscored how carefully she matched tone and meaning to the sensibilities of young readers and the interpretive power of illustrators.

Novels and National Recognition
While continuing to write for children, Field extended her reach with adult novels that combined strong sense of place with nuanced portraits of memory, belonging, and moral choice. Time Out of Mind drew deeply on the culture of the Maine coast, tracing generational ties and the sea's hold over families. All This, and Heaven Too (1938), a historical novel rooted in an infamous 19th-century scandal, brought Field a broad national readership. The novel's blend of psychological insight, carefully paced revelation, and a protagonist navigating complex social expectations showed her ability to shape historical material into compelling fiction. Throughout these works, Field kept faith with themes she had honed in verse and children's stories: the textures of daily life, the way objects and places store memory, and the capacity for quiet resilience in the face of change.

Hollywood and Adaptations
Field's growing prominence naturally intersected with the film industry. All This, and Heaven Too was adapted into a major motion picture in 1940, with Bette Davis and Charles Boyer embodying the brooding elegance and emotional undercurrents of the story. The adaptation brought Field's name to an even wider audience and introduced many moviegoers to her command of mood and character. During this period she spent time in California, working alongside producers and screen professionals who translated literary structures into cinematic ones. The visibility of that film helped sustain interest in her earlier and later books, and further established her as a writer whose narratives could live comfortably on both page and screen.

Personal Life
Amid professional success, Field's personal life remained intertwined with literary friendships and creative partnerships. Her collaboration with Dorothy P. Lathrop on Hitty exemplified how closely she worked with visual artists to make a book's design serve its storytelling. Similarly, the trust she placed in Elizabeth Orton Jones for Prayer for a Child shows her sensitivity to the confluence of text and image. Field married Arthur S. Pedersen, and the couple's life included periods on the East Coast and in California as her career opened doors across publishing and film. Those who knew her remembered a quiet, observant presence, the kind of listener whose attentiveness turns into exacting prose.

Final Years and Death
In the early 1940s, Field continued to write with unabated energy. Her novel And Now Tomorrow appeared around the time of her final illness and was subsequently adapted for the screen, testament to the ongoing appeal of her storytelling. She died in 1942 at the age of forty-seven. Her passing curtailed a career that had already left distinctive marks in multiple genres, and it arrived just as her name had become familiar to readers in both children's rooms and adult parlors, as well as to audiences in theaters.

Themes and Craft
Field's writing reveals a careful ear for cadence and a deep trust in the quiet power of detail. Whether giving a voice to a carved doll, charting the inner life of a governess caught in scandal, or sketching a child's bedtime prayer, she maintained a clarity of language that left room for readers to find themselves in the spaces between sentences. Place is central: the rocky coves, tidal shifts, and working rhythms of New England echo through her plots and metaphors. Memory functions as both subject and structure; the passage of time, and the objects that survive it, give her characters depth and her stories resonance. She balanced sentiment with restraint, a quality that allowed her work to appeal across ages.

Legacy
Rachel Field's legacy is anchored by honors in children's literature and by adult novels that continue to be read for their atmosphere and moral complexity. The Newbery Medal for Hitty confirmed her as a major voice for young readers; the later acclaim for Prayer for a Child affirmed her ability to write texts so pure in feeling that illustrators could lift them into the realm of the classic. In adult fiction, the continuing life of All This, and Heaven Too and Time Out of Mind keeps her name linked to historical and regional novels of uncommon sensitivity. The adaptations associated with Bette Davis and Charles Boyer placed her stories in the collective memory of a generation of filmgoers. Through her collaborations with Dorothy P. Lathrop and Elizabeth Orton Jones, she helped define a high standard for the synergy of text and illustration. For readers drawn to lyric prose and the evocative pull of place, Rachel Field remains a guiding figure whose work bridges the intimacies of childhood and the complexities of adult life.

Our collection contains 5 quotes who is written by Rachel, under the main topics: Wisdom - Friendship - Tough Times - Happiness.