Lullaby-Land: Songs of Childhood was published posthumously by Charles Scribner’s Sons in 1897, assembled from Field’s newspaper columns and unpublished papers after his death in 1895. The collection extends the work of Love-Songs of Childhood and A Little Book of Western Verse, gathering additional lullabies, nursery poems, and verses about children that Field had written throughout his career but not included in his earlier books.
The title — “Lullaby-Land” — evokes the dreamworld that Field inhabited so naturally in his poetry: the borderland between waking and sleeping where wooden shoes sail among the stars and toys come to life and babies float on moonbeams. Field’s imaginary geography is consistent across his work — a world where the laws of physics are suspended in favor of the laws of childhood imagination, where metaphor becomes literal and the impossible is merely improbable.
The posthumous nature of the collection means that it is uneven — containing both finished masterpieces and working drafts that Field might have revised further — but the best poems stand with his earlier work. The collection also includes several translations and adaptations from German and French nursery poetry, reflecting Field’s lifelong interest in European children’s literature and his belief that the best children’s verse transcended national boundaries.
Collecting Lullaby-Land
First edition (Charles Scribner’s Sons, New York, 1897): Cloth binding with decorative cover, illustrated.
Market values:
- First edition: $40–$100
- Later printings: $10–$25