Rachel Field

Novelist, poet, and children’s author Rachel Field was born in New York and attended Radcliffe College. Field’s novels for adults include Time Out of Mind (1935) and All This and Heaven Too (1938), which was turned into a movie starring Bette Davis and Charles Boyer. She is the author of Fear Is the Thorn (1936) as well as several poetry collections for children, including Taxis and Toadstools (1926), An Alphabet for Boys and Girls (1926), and A Circus Garland: Poems (1930). Field spent summers in Cranberry Isles, Maine, and a number of her books are set in Maine. Her books for young adults, including the Newbery Medal winner Hitty: Her First Hundred Years (1929), chronicling the life of a doll, and Calico Bush (1931), often take place in Maine. God’s Pocket (1934) is a retelling of the adventures of Captain Samuel Hadlock Jr. of Cranberry Isles. Field’s poem about the Isles, “If Once You Have Slept on an Island,” was illustrated by Iris Van Rynbach and published as a book in 1993.  Field was also a noted lyricist and playwright, penning the English lyrics for Franz Schubert’s Ave Maria included in the Disney film Fantasia. Her plays include Cinderella Married, A Comedy in One Act (1924), The Bad Penny: A Drama in One Act (1931), and First Class Matter: A Comedy in One Act (1936).  Field was married to the literary agent Arthur S. Pederson. She died of pneumonia at age 48.  Source