Lincoln Discussion Symposium

Who wrote this to Carl Sandburg in 1938?

"Don't let the flight of time, the passage of the wild geese, the shortening of the daylight, or the coming of ice on the lake, at your feet, hurry this masterpiece. Dry bones don't get up in the valley and walk till the artists and the poets tell them to, and as your greatest work nears its end it must sing and rise to orchestral symphonic proportions. You are the only living man who can make Lincoln's biography rise up at the end and in full chorus. You may be the only American since Lincoln who could do this. So think of it as the Trojan Wars and yourself as Homer. The first part is great and the last part will be greater."

Best
Rob

W. A. Evans?

Good guess, Roger, but it isn't Evans.

Best
Rob

Clue #1, he was a writer as well.

Best
Rob

James G. Randall?

William Faulkner?

Sorry gentlemen, but neither guess is correct. Randall and Sandburg didn't begin their friendship until after Abraham Lincoln The War Years was published (Randall wrote a review of it, and he later told F. Lauriston Bullard that he had been too easy on Sandburg). Faulkner did write a letter to Sandburg, but there is no record of when the letter was written, and it doesn't appear that Sandburg ever wrote back.

That leads to the next clue (and the last for the evening). Sandburg and this person were regular correspondents.

Best
Rob

Next clue. One of his sidelines was sheep ranching.

Best
Rob

Charles J. Finger?

Interesting guess Roger, but it's not him.

This will likely give it away, but he was raised a Quaker.

Best
Rob

Rob,

You are causing me to break a vow!

Lloyd Lewis--whose Myths After Lincoln is one of my prized Lincoln books as well as the first volume of the Grant biography. After Lewis's death, the bio was completed by Catton.

Once again, Joe sneaks in for the win. It was Lloyd Lewis who wrote that to Sandburg.

Best
Rob

(08-29-2019 06:03 PM)Rob Wick Wrote: [ -> ]Once again, Joe sneaks in for the win. It was Lloyd Lewis who wrote that to Sandburg.

Best
Rob

Lewis's Myths book was one of the first ones I remember reading when I finally started to collect assassination books. It is packed away in my bassement storage area as I speak...or type.

Yes, I love that book!

In 1931, Carl Sandburg was asked by this author to write a preface for a book the author wanted to publish. Sandburg did, but the author didn't find it appropriate to the work, and it never appeared in print. Who was the author and what was the book?

Best
Rob