ABSTRACT
Ben Field is a marvelously refreshing writer; his stories and novels have movement, earthiness, and a feel of authenticity. Throughout his life Ben Field has been concerned with identity, personal growth and freedom, self-discipline and responsibility for one's self. In 1930 he began publishing stories about Jewish family life, for the most part. One of his first stories, "A Japanese Kimono", appeared in an anthology Copy 1930, which was a compilation of the published work of students in special writing courses in the Columbia University Extension Division. A short story "Cow" combines Field's two milieux; it is the story of a Jewish city man and the influence he exerts on the people he meets while working on a farm. His first novel The Outside Leaf was published in 1943. Work as a logger in the Upper Delaware River Valley of Pennsylvania and New York contributed to the writing of Field's third novel The Last Freshet.
