He was born in London, came to America when very young, and for several years traveled through the country writing plays and acting them without attaining much reputation.
In 1852 he assumed the management of a theatre in St. Louis, Missouri, where he was also later principal owner and an editor of the Reveille, a daily newspaper.
[2] Field seemingly attended the Boston Lyceum lecture in October 1845 when Edgar Allan Poe controversially recited a version of "Al Aaraaf" and later declaimed the incident as an attempted hoax.
[4] He also wrote a dramatic response to Harriet Beecher Stowe's 1852 novel Uncle Tom's Cabin which he staged in New Orleans.
[5] He died at a hotel in Mobile, Alabama on January 28, 1856, and was buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery, near where his daughter was studying.