Did Longfellow predict Sandburg?

[Rob Wick]

I'm working on my next article, which I've tentatively titled "Iderem and Sholly: Ida M. Tarbell, Carl Sandburg and Popular Lincoln Biography." It is a comparative analysis of Tarbell and Sandburg's work and how they influenced Lincoln biography, both popular and academic. "Iderem" is the nickname given to Tarbell by William Allen White and is a play on "Ida M." "Sholly" is what Sandburg's father called him when Carl changed his name to Charles. The reason for this thread's title came about when I, quite by accident, found a poem written by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It is from his 1857 poem John Endicott, which is part of the New England Tragedies. Mind you, I wasn't looking for this, nor did I have any idea of its existence. I plan to use it as an epigram to my article.

“Nor let the Historian blame the Poet here,
If he perchance misdate the day or year,
And group together events, by his art,
That in the Chronicles lie far apart;
For as the doubled stars, though sundered far,
Seem to the naked eye a single star,
So facts of history, at a distance seen,
Into one common point of light convene.”


Best
Rob