Papers of Rachel Field, 1845-1942

Rachel Lyman Field, author was born in New York City on September 19, 1894, daughter of Matthew Dickinson and Lucy (Atwater) Field. Her father was a physician. The family moved first to Stockbridge, Massachusetts in 1895, and then to Springfield, in 1904, so that Field considered herself a New Englander. Summers were spent on Sutton Island off the coast of Maine.

Field went to public schools and attended Radcliffe, 1914-1918, as a special student. She studied playwriting under George Pierce Baker, founder of the "47 workshop," and her plays: "Three Pills in a Bottle," and "The Sentimental Scarecrow" remained popular in repertory theaters throughout her life. In 1918, Field moved to New York and found a job with Famous Players-Lasky, one of the leading producers of silent motion pictures. She worked for this firm preparing digests of books and plays. At the same time, she began to write books for children: Taxis and Toadstools and Hitty: Her First Hundred Years. Hitty was awarded the Newbery medal in 1930.

In 1935, Field married Arthur Pedersen, a literary agent, and moved to Beverly Hills, California. They adopted a daughter, Hannah, and collaborated on a Hollywood novel, To See Ourselves (1937). Field published 21 plays, several books of poetry, 15 children's books and 6 adult novels. Her most popular novel, All This and Heaven Too (1938) was a best seller and was made into a movie by Warner Brothers, starring Bette Davis and Charles Boyer. Her last book And Now Tomorrow was published posthumously.

Field received honorary degrees from the University of Maine and from Colby College, in June 1938. She died in California on March 15, 1942 of pneumonia contracted after an operation. She was buried in Stockbridge.