Woman of the Century/Kate Field

KATE FIELD. FIELD, Miss Kate, journalist, lecturer and author, born in St. Louis, Mo., in 1840. She is a daughter of the late Joseph M. Field, the well-known actor and dramatist. She was educated in seminaries in Massachusetts, and her education was broad and liberal, including thorough culture in music. After finishing her studies in the Massachusetts schools, she went to Florence, Italy, where she studied music and the modern languages. While living in Europe she corresponded for the New York "Tribune," the Philadelphia "Press" and the Chicago "Tribune," and contributed sketches for various periodicals. She studied music with Garcia and William Shakespeare. She became known in Europe as a woman of great powers of intellect and remarkable versatility. Among her acquaintances was George Eliot, who took a strong fancy to the sparkling American girl. Returning to the United States, Miss Field, in 1874, made her début as an actor in Booth's Theater, New York City, where she won a fair success. Afterward she gave a variety song, dance and recitation. In 1882 and 1883 she was at the head of the Cooperative Dress Association in New York, which was abandoned for want of success. During the following years she lectured on Mormonism and Prohibition, as well as other current topics. In 1890 she went to Washington, D. C., where she founded her successful journal, "Kate Field's Washington." Her published works are "Planchette's Diary" (New York, 1868), "Adelaide Ristori" (1868), "Mad On Purpose," a comedy (1868), "Pen Photographs from Charles Dicken's Readings" (Boston. 1868), "Haphazard" (1873). "Ten Days in Spain" (1875), and a "History of Bell's Telephone" (London, 1878). She is the author of an analysis of George Eliot's character and works, of dramatic criticisms without number, of a life of Fechter, and of numerous political and economical essays. She is an enthusiast in art, and she has spent much time and effort to secure an art congress in Washington, for the advancement of free art, with a governmental commission of art and architecture, and a national loan exhibition of paintings by American artists exclusively