[3] At the age of 14, Fields took a job at the Old Corner Bookstore in Boston[2] as an apprentice to publishers Carter and Hendee.

[4] His first published poetry was included in the Portsmouth Journal in 1837 but he drew more attention when, on September 13, 1838, he delivered his "Anniversary Poem" to the Boston Mercantile Library Association.

He became known for being likable, for his skill at finding creative talent, and for his ability to promote authors and win their loyalty.

[6] With this company, Fields became the publisher of leading contemporary American writers, with whom he was on terms of close personal friendship.

[10] He maintained a close friendship with her family and, on March 13, 1850, married her 18-year-old sister Eliza Willard at Boston's Federal Street Church.

After Hawthorne's death in 1864, Fields served as a pallbearer for his funeral alongside Amos Bronson Alcott, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and Edwin Percy Whipple.

[14] In 1867, he performed the same role after the death of Nathaniel Parker Willis, along with Holmes, Longfellow, James Russell Lowell, and Samuel Gridley Howe.

[16] At a New Year's Eve party in 1865, he met William Dean Howells and 10 days later offered him a position as assistant editor of the Atlantic.

Her friend, writer Celia Thaxter told her, "don't shut yourself away... or you will die a thousand deaths of silence."

This volume contains the poem "The Ballad of the Tempest", which includes the famous lines: James T. Fields was known in his lifetime as one of the most successful and shrewd book promoters, working at a time when bribery was typical in the publishing culture.

Fields was reputedly able to ascertain what book a visitor to the Old Corner Bookstore would purchase within 10 minutes of arrival.