A collection of accounts of Fields\'s relationships with some of the greatest 19th century authors: Hawthorne, Thackeray, Dickens (with many letters to Fields), Wordsworth, Mary Russell Mitford, and B. W. Proctor. There are many excerpts from letters, as well as a long chapter on Dickens, including the audition of the early chapters of Drood. Fields reports on his London visits with Dickens to opium dens, etc. with the impact on scenes from \"Edwin Drood\" and other novels. Condition: Rubbing to the perimeters of the volume. Corners and edges bumped through to the boards. The title page is loose. Binding a little fragile. The textblock is free of annotations.