Annie Fields

Annie Adams Fields (June 6, 1834 – January 5, 1915) was an American writer. Among her writings are collections of poetry and essays as well as several memoirs and biographies of her literary acquaintances. She was also interested in philanthropic work, in which she found her greatest pleasure. Her later years were spent as a companion to author Sarah Orne Jewett.

Adolescence

Fields attended George B. Emerson's School for Young Ladies, Boston's most influential private secondary school for girls, where students were taught to read independently and trained to appreciate nature. She followed Emerson's advice about ongoing education by studying foreign languages, literature, nature, history, travel books, and biography, and cultivating one's "power of expression." Upon his suggestion, Fields began to keep a diary, though she usually kept her own feelings out of it. She sometimes recorded good thoughts or beautiful images which are presented or suggested by observing, reading, or conversing, and she often concentrated on recording table talk of her, often, eminent guests. The fullest congruence of Emerson's advice to his students and Annie Field's activities stems from his repeated insistence that "every good life is necessarily devoted, directly or indirectly, to the service of mankind."

1834–1881

She was born Ann West Adams in Boston, Massachusetts, on June 9, 1834, the sixth of seven children of Zabdiel Boylston Adams and Sarah May Holland Adams. Among her siblings was her brother Zabdiel Boylston Adams Jr. As a girl, she was enrolled at the School for Young Ladies in Boston operated by George Barrell Emerson, where she was encouraged to read, learned Italian, developed an interest in self-expression, and came to appreciate nature.