Kate Field and the New York Tribune

Abstract

novel The Portrait of a Lady. 2 Though she never held a salaried position with the paper, never was a regular correspondent for the paper but always an occasional one, Field published between 1866 and 1889 over a hundred commissioned and freelance articles, editorials, and letters in the New York Tribune, nicknamed not entirely facetiously the Great Moral Organ; and she regarded her success as a contributor to the Tribune the benchmark of her achievements as a journalist. How- ever, she is not mentioned in any of the various histories of the Tribune, the most significant, reliable, and respected paper in the country, with a daily circulation of between thirty to forty thousand copies. Like many prominent nineteenth-century women, Field has been virtually erased from the modern historical record even as her critical recovery may illustrate her repudiation of traditional gender roles and her struggle to forge a professional career.