Perhaps Joseph M. Field's final place in American letters has yet to be determined because his interests and abilities covered such a wide spectrum. Others have suggested, in fact, that his widely reaching talents kept him from a truly distinguished place in any one area. He was an actor, a playwright, a theater manager, a writer of humorous sketches, and a newspaper editor. Of these endeavors, acting consumed most of his life; yet, given the transient nature of a stage performance, his most enduring legacy will probably be his work as one of the editors of the St. Louis Reveille from 1844 to 1850. This newspaper was a fertile field for the writers known as the humorists of the Old Southwest. Often using pseudonyms--Field wrote sketches under the names of "Everpoint" and "Straws"--the Southwestern humorists wrote with a vitality and realism uncharacteristic of most of the writers of the...