Carl Sandburg and Lincoln

[LincolnMan]

Roger: That probably saves me a trip, to be honest. I would visit there if there was something about Sandburg there. Strikes me as odd that the town has, apparently, nothing there to indicate that it was his home for so long.

[Rob Wick]

The websites for that area mention that Sandburg lived there, but as far as I can see, they mention no signs or museums dedicated to him, not like Galesburg or Flat Rock. Really, though, neither does Chicago. One of the homes he lived in while there has been torn down and I don't know of any memorials to him there. There are some schools named for Sandburg, but I imagine the students there know as much about him as students who go to William Henry Harrison High know about him. Pretty sad, really.

Best
Rob

[LincolnMan]

Yes, how so many giants of the past are forgotten with the passage of time-it really is sad.

[LincolnMan]

I just pulled out my copy of Mary Lincoln Wife and Widow by Sandburg, dated 1932- and note that the picture of Mary at the beginning of the book is the one (I believe) that was recently discovered to have been altered. It originally wasn't a painting of Mary at all. Just an interesting side-note, if you will. Then I read part of the Prologue about Mary and am refreshed with Sandburg "speak:" "She lived, suffered, laughed, wept, sat in candlelight and shadows, and passed out from the light of the living sun." Who else could write like that?

[Rob Wick]

Certainly wish I could, Bill.

Best
Rob

[Dawn E Foster]

I found a copy of The Letters of Carl Sandburg, and an old biography of him by a Harry Golden at my library's used book sale this weekend. I had picked up the One Volume Edition - The Prairie Years and the War Years, along with a couple of other Lincoln books (The Lincoln Nobody Knows, Mary Todd Lincoln: Her Life and Letters ... ) two summers ago. Last year I never made it to the sale at all, since it started the day after my surgery on July 7th, but I did take the last of my previous year's finds, The Day Lincoln Was Shot, along with me for my recovery, and the rest, as they say, is history!

[Rob Wick]

Dawn,

The book of letters is an interesting cross-section of Sandburg material, but I have to say that in my experience going through the correspondence I've seen, Herbert Mitgang made some interesting selections. He only included one uninteresting letter from Randall, although there were a number which could have better shown the relationship between the men, and really didn't include as many between Sandburg and his wife which I think are interesting. Of course, however, he was constrained by the space he had available. Harry Golden's biography was an interesting read, if a bit uneven. Hope you enjoy both books!

Best
Rob

[LincolnMan]

Dawn: great reading ahead for you! I have the Golden book myself. I pulled it off the shelf after you mentioned it. I had forgotten that my copy is signed by both Golden and Sandburg!

[LincolnMan]

Has anyone looked into Carl Sandburg's genealogy? Just wondering if there is any connection to the Lincoln's? Or anyone in the Civil War?

[Rob Wick]

Bill,

Sandburg was Swedish. His father, August, came over to America in 1869 while his mother, Clara, arrived in 1873. They were married on August 7, 1874 and Carl made his appearance on January 9, 1878. Galesburg was home to a large Swedish community and, at one point, even had a Swedish-language newspaper.

Sandburg said his interest in Lincoln and the Civil War came from his conversations with people who had known Lincoln when he and Douglas came there in 1858 for the debate. He also knew veterans of the Civil War era. Sandburg was in the audience when Robert Todd Lincoln spoke in Galesburg about his father, one of the few times he ever spoke in public about him. Sandburg told James G. Randall that he wanted to write the biography because he wished he had something like that to read when Sandburg was delivering milk. Sandburg walked past Knox College on his way to work and often read the plaque attached to the front of the building which marked the debate site. Interestingly, Knox College's building is the only extant debate site.

Best
Rob

[Joe Di Cola]

Bill,

I have a signed copy of Golden's book, too. I will never forget the circumstances of its getting signed. It made such an impression on me that I wrote down the experience a few hours later and still have that impression in a manila folder. It was during a college break when I had gone back to Chicago and went downtown to the nnow defunct Kroch & Brentano's bookstore on Wabash. The book was there with a sign indicating that Carl Sandburg would be there in the afternoon to sign the book. It had already been signed by Harry Golden. A clerk asked if she could help me and I expressed my interest in purchasing the book, but also my dismay at not being able to be there in the afternoon when Sandburg would do his signings. She excused herself, I thought, to help another customer. She came back and asked me to follow her up onto the mezzanine of the store--where she ushered me into a room where, seated at a table, was Carl Sandburg. He rose and I eagerly shook his hand. He took out a Parker fountain pen (I remember this because I also wrote with one) and signed his name for me in the flyleaf of the book. I was thrilled!

[RJNorton]

Rob, this post is actually from my wife. She says to tell you that the one thing she remembers as we used to drive through Harbert was the Swedish Bakery.

[LincolnMan]

Can you imagine talking to living persons who knew Abraham Lincoln? Its astounding now in 2012, but in Sandburg's day and age not so far removed as we are. Rob, nice to learn the things that sparked Sandburg's interest in Lincoln. Would you say that he felt his work on Lincoln was his proudest achievement?

[Rob Wick]

Roger,

That's pretty neat. I wonder if Harbert has a large Swedish population.

Bill, I'm not sure if he would have thought that or not. I really think at heart he was a poet, so it's hard to say whether he would rank his poetry higher than his prose. Nothing I've come across yet has given me an answer. Just a quick addition to this. Wayne Temple told me (and I'd read in other places) that the one major disappointment that Sandburg had was that he didn't win the Nobel Prize for Literature. In fact, when John Steinbeck won, he reportedly said “Of course I am glad to get it. But I wish it had gone to Sandburg. Damn it. He is America!”

Joe, that's a really good story. Did he have much to say to you?

Best
Rob

[LincolnMan]

Joe: Love your Sandburg story! Would it be too much to ask of you to take a picture of his signature in the book and post it for us in the Forum? Any more to add about meeting him? Any one else in our Forum ever meet Sandburg? Every once in awhile I go to YouTube and watch that segment of Sandburg on the old What's My Line TV show. The respect that he was apparently given is so precious. He certainly seemed to be having fun on the show. If you haven't seen it-its a lot of fun just watching it.