A Little Book of Profitable Tales was published by Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1889, appearing simultaneously with A Little Book of Western Verse — the two volumes establishing Field as both poet and storyteller in a single stroke. The tales are fairy stories and allegories in the tradition of Hans Christian Andersen, whom Field admired deeply: stories about toys that come to life, flowers that speak, animals with human feelings, and children navigating a world that is both magical and morally serious.
Field’s prose in these stories has a clarity and musicality that reflects his training as a journalist — he never wastes a word — combined with a tenderness toward childhood that gives the best tales genuine emotional power. “The Mouse and the Moonbeam” and “The Robin and the Violet” show his gift for anthropomorphic fable, while longer pieces like “The First Christmas Tree” (later published separately) demonstrate his ability to sustain a narrative across multiple pages.
The “profitable” of the title is both ironic and sincere: the tales do teach lessons (kindness, patience, love), but Field wraps his morality in such charming storytelling that the instruction never feels didactic. The book was enormously popular in the 1890s and early 1900s, going through dozens of printings and establishing a model for American children’s literature that would influence writers well into the twentieth century.
Collecting A Little Book of Profitable Tales
First edition (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1889): Small octavo, cloth binding with gilt lettering.
Market values:
- First edition: $50–$150
- Later printings (1890s): $10–$30