A visit

[Rob Wick]

Joe,

In 1991 Penelope Niven wrote Carl Sandburg: A Biography which I think is probably the standard work for generations to come. I don't see what I'm doing as a biography as much as a meditation on how history is written in our country by both avocational and vocational historians using Sandburg as a case study. And hopefully it will be a hell of a lot more interesting than I've just described it.

I've not been to Connemara but I did speak in Galesburg during the Carl Sandburg Days Festival for the Mind last year. The one thing which really struck me about visiting Sandburg's birthplace is how small it was and how, even today, it is literally on the "wrong side" of the tracks. The neighborhood isn't someplace I'd like to be after dark.

I would have loved to meet Sandburg or listened to him lecture and then play the guitar. Reading his letters makes it seem like I am doing that.

I've attached three photos from my trip to Galesburg. The first is of me next to Sandburg's grave, the middle one is me and my wife in front of Sandburg's birthplace and the last one is of me speaking during the festival.

[img] [/img]

Best
Rob