Charles K. Field

Charles K. Field collaborated with Will H. Irwin on a collection shaped by their connection to Stanford University’s formative years. Stanford Stories Tales of a Young University gathers campus fiction about clubs, athletics, arguments, friendships, and commencement, presenting the university before later building projects changed its physical character. The original volume appeared from Doubleday, Page & Company in 1900 and identifies both Field and Irwin as authors. Its prefatory note explains that most pieces are fiction, although several drew upon local occurrences and one is largely factual. Field belonged to Stanford’s pioneer class, a background that gave the stories an informed sense of student customs and the young institution’s emerging identity. Stanford Stories Tales of a Young University reads less like a formal institutional history than a lively literary portrait, using varied episodes to preserve the humor, loyalties, rivalries, and aspirations associated with an American university still defining its traditions.