Carl Sandburg and Lincoln

[LincolnMan]

I called the library. I'm making a visit next week. I'll let you know what I find and/or discover.

[LincolnMan]

Rob: in another thread you mentioned how you categorize Sandburg's mistakes. You mention "major mistakes" as a category. What major mistake did Sandburg make, if any, in his work on Lincoln?

[Rob Wick]

Bill,

Since I've not read all six volumes completely through (and I only used bits and pieces for papers I wrote in college) I can't sit here and give you a detailed response from the books (yet). However, the thing that comes to my mind first as a major mistake would be Sandburg's rush to accept Wilma Minor's letters as genuine, and making that claim in the newspapers.

Both Oliver Barrett and Paul Angle warned Sandburg that he was rushing to judgement but he didn't listen. Sandburg began to backtrack, though, and eventually admitted that he had been duped. His excuse, saying that he didn't do his hard-nosed research until later, was excessively lame. Sandburg wanted to believe that there were letters between Ann Rutledge and Lincoln and showed absolutely no critical sense at all.

Best
Rob

[LincolnMan]

Thanks Rob. You're knowledge of Sandburg is invaluable. By the way, I'm making a trip to the Carl Sandburg Library in Livonia, Michigan tomorrow.

[Rob Wick]

So Bill, how did the trip go? Find anything?

Best
Rob

[LincolnMan]

Rob: I went to the Carl Sandburg Library in Livonia, Michigan today. See: http://abesblogcabin.org/a-visit-to-the-...a-michigan
It is a small but very active library. The librarian showed me the letter Sandburg sent to them acknowledging the honor of having the place named for him but also giving regrets for not being able to attend the opening. It is signed by him. There is also a head sculpture of Sandburg there and a large portrait of him on the wall. I was having camera problems trying to photograph the picture but it is still passable. All in all, it was very enjoyable to see the honor given to him and the respect for his place in history.

[RJNorton]

Thanks for posting this, Bill, and kudos on the wonderful blog you have!

[LincolnMan]

Good morning Roger-and thank you!

[LincolnMan]

Walter G. Moss has an article: "Obama, Sandburg and Lincoln" posted here: http://www.sandburg.org/obamasandburglincoln.pdf

[Rob Wick]

The website for Sandburg's birthplace has a couple of Moss's articles there. Plus, they have pdf copies of Inklings and Idlings, which in their newsletter and is a take-off on a column Sandburg wrote for the Galesburg Evening Mail newspaper.

Best
Rob

[LincolnMan]

Yesterday on my lunch break at the hospital I decided to conduct an informal, unscientific poll. I asked 30 hospital employees some questions for the poll. The employees were comprised of both males and females with varying ethnic backgrounds and educational levels. There were two questions. If either of the two questions were answered in the affirmative-they were then asked a follow-up question. Here are the two first questions: 1) Do you know who Abraham Lincoln was? ;and 2) Do you know who Carl Sandburg was?
If they answered "yes" to either question, they were then asked: 3)What did he do?

Out of the 30 people asked (including doctors)-all said they knew who Lincoln was. Also, for the follow-up
question they all gave me satisfactory answers as pertaining to what Lincoln did. Most common
answer: "He freed the slaves."

As for Carl Sandburg, 10 out of 30 said they knew who he was. Out of the 10 only 8 really knew who he was. One person said he was "that guy who wrote about the stars." He then realized he was thinking of Carl Sagan. The other one who thought she knew who Sandburg was realized she meant "Karl Marx" -that "communist guy." The other 8 who said they knew who Sandburg was correctly gave an acceptable answer. Four of them
said he was a "poet" and four said he was a "writer." I gave them credit for the "writer" answer. This tells me that Lincoln is still a known figure among people. Frankly, I didn't expect 8 to know who Sandburg was. I also note that among those 8-none of them mentioned that Sandburg wrote about Lincoln. For what it's worth everyone. I usually don't take a lunch when I'm working at the hospital but I must say I enjoyed this little unscientific effort. I wonder if the same result would hold with a larger sample in the community?

[Rob Wick]

Interesting Bill, especially since Sandburg lived in Michigan for as long as he did. I think much of it comes because Sandburg isn't taught in English classes as he would have been at one point, so many aren't familiar with the Chicago Poems or Fog. I once started to read Chicago to a friend who is highly literate and she had no idea what I was talking about.

I was looking at a Barnes and Noble in Urbana (where, at the University of Illinois, Sandburg's papers were deposited) and all I saw by him was Honey and Salt, which isn't one of his better collections of poems, and that's about it. I wonder if maybe a new anthology not as detailed as his Pulitzer Prize-winning Collected Poems of Carl Sandburg might be brought out, but I doubt anyone in the academic community would do it, and I honestly don't know how successful (read profitable) it would be.

Of course, the single volume Lincoln biography is still in print, so there might be some interest.

Thanks for letting us know about your unscientific poll.

Best
Rob

[LincolnMan]

Rob: yes, if Sandburg isn't covered in schools-that's a problem. I don't think many Michigan folks know he lived in Michigan. I was looking at Sandburg quotes as given on-line. Some of them are very good. But then I began to wonder if, like so many quotes attributed to Lincoln that Lincoln didn't actually say, did Sandburg actually say them or no? I saw that some of the quotes were words from some of his poems. Did Sandburg make the quote about babies being God's opinion that the world should continue, for instance?

[RJNorton]

I agree, Bill. For 15 years we had a small cabin in St. Joe, Michigan, which is less than 20 miles from Harbert. In all those years I met many folks from Michigan, especially on the golf courses I played there. Never once did I hear from anyone a single mention of Carl Sandburg or the fact that he once lived so close by. As there was no mention of Sandburg on the main road through Harbert I didn't know it at the time either.

[LincolnMan]

Good morning Roger: I forgot you lived in Michigan. I've never been to St. Joseph nor Harbert. I'm somewhat astounded that Harbert has made nothing of who has to be their most famous former resident. Then again, maybe Sandburg would have wanted it that way.