Field was also a journalist noted for his wicked sense of humor, wild practical jokes and bawdy verses. His father, Roswell Martin Field, had defended Dred Scott. His mother died when he was 5 and he was sent to Massachusetts to be raised by his father´s relatives. He entered Williams College in 1868 and Knox College after his father´s death in 1869. He was apparently asked to leave both after hijinks, ending up at Missouri-Columbia, where poor behavior kept him on the brink of expulsion.

About 1872 he returned to St. Louis and married 15-year-old Julia Comstock. They later had eight children. He became city editor of the Evening Journal and published his first poem in it. In 1875 he when to the St. Joseph Gazette as city editor, then returned to the St. Louis Journal and later the Kansas City Times (now the Star) before becoming managing editor of the Denver Tribune. [Cuoco/Gass]