View source for Carl Sandburg

{{short description|American writer and editor (1878–1967)}}
{{About|the writer|the passenger train service|Illinois Zephyr and Carl Sandburg}}
{{Infobox writer
| image            = Carl Sandburg NYWTS.jpg
| alt              = 
| caption          = Sandburg in 1955
| birth_name       = Carl Sandberg<ref name=autobio2939/>
| birth_date       = {{Birth date|1878|1|6}}
| birth_place      = [[Galesburg, Illinois]], U.S.
| death_date       = {{Death date and age|1967|7|22|1878|1|6}}
| death_place      = [[Flat Rock, Henderson County, North Carolina|Flat Rock, North Carolina]], U.S.
| occupation       = Journalist, author, and editor
| education        = [[Lombard College]] (non-graduate)
| notableworks     = {{unbulleted list | ''[[Chicago Poems]]'' | ''[[The People, Yes]]'' | ''Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and The War Years'' | ''[[Rootabaga Stories]]''}}
| spouse           = {{Marriage|Lilian Steichen|1908<!--Do not put "his death" per manual of style-->}}
| children         = 3
| relatives        = [[Edward Steichen]] (brother-in-law) <br /> [[George Crile Jr.]] (son-in-law) <br /> [[Mary Calderone]] (niece)
| signature        = CarlSandburgSig.png
| awards           = {{unbulleted list | [[Pulitzer Prize]] {{nowrap|(1919, 1940, 1951)}} | [[Robert Frost Medal]] (1952) | [[Presidential Medal of Freedom]] (1964)}}
{{Infobox military person
|embed        = yes
|embed_title  = Military Service
|allegiance   = [[United States]]
|branch       = [[U.S. Army]]
|serviceyears = 1898
|unit         = 6th Illinois Infantry
|rank         = Private
|battles      = [[Spanish–American War]]<br>{{*}}[[Puerto Rico]]}}
}}
'''Carl August Sandburg''' (January 6, 1878 &ndash; July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor.  He won three [[Pulitzer Prizes]]: two for his poetry and one for his biography of [[Abraham Lincoln]]. During his lifetime, Sandburg was widely regarded as "a major figure in contemporary literature", especially for volumes of his collected verse, including ''[[Chicago Poems]]'' (1916), ''Cornhuskers'' (1918), and ''Smoke and Steel'' (1920).<ref name="Danilov 198">{{cite book |last=Danilov |first=Victor |date= September 26, 2013 |title=Famous Americans: A Directory of Museums, Historic Sites, and Memorials |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kWsrAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA198 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |page=198 |access-date=January 6, 2015|isbn=9780810891869 }}</ref> He enjoyed "unrivaled appeal as a poet in his day, perhaps because the breadth of his experiences connected him with so many strands of American life".<ref>{{cite web | title= A Workingman's Poet | first= Danny |last= Heitman | work = [[Humanities (magazine)|Humanities]]| date= March–April 2013 | url= http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2013/marchapril/feature/workingmans-poet | access-date= January 6, 2014}}</ref> When he died in 1967, President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] observed that "Carl Sandburg was more than the voice of America, more than the poet of its strength and genius. He was America."<ref>{{cite book |last=Callahan |first=North |date=October 1, 1990 |title=Carl Sandburg: His Life and Works |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8JMnNncs6pwC&pg=PA233 |publisher= Pennsylvania State University Press |page=233 |isbn=978-0271004860 |access-date=January 7, 2015 }}</ref>

==Life==
[[File:Carl Sandburg 1914 Edit.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|Sandburg {{circa}} 1914]]
Carl Sandburg was born in a three-room cottage at 313 East Third Street in [[Galesburg, Illinois]], to Clara Mathilda ([[Birth name|née]] Anderson) and August Sandberg,<ref name=autobio2939>{{cite book|title=Always the Young Strangers|last=Sandburg|first=Carl|publisher=Harcourt, Brace and Company|location=New York|year=1953|pages=29, 39}} Sandburg's father's last name was originally "Danielson" or "Sturm". He could read but not write, and he accepted whatever spelling other people used. The young Carl, sister Mary, and brother Mart changed the spelling to "Sandburg" when in elementary school.</ref> both of [[Swedish Americans|Swedish]] ancestry.<ref>[http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h3767.html "Carl Sandburg"], United States History.</ref> He adopted the nickname "Charles" or “Charlie” in elementary school and, along with his two oldest siblings, changed the spelling of the family name to "Sandburg".<ref name=autobio2939 /><ref>Sandburg in 1953 was not able to recall his younger self's reasons, but he relates that being able to correctly pronounce "ch" was a mark of assimilation among Swedish immigrants.</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/carl-sandburg-education-carl-sandburg-timeline/2320/|title=American Masters: Carl Sandburg Timeline|publisher=PBS|date=August 18, 2012|author=Penelope Niven|access-date=January 19, 2014}}</ref> 

At the age of thirteen, Sandburg left school and began driving a [[Milk float|milk wagon]]. Between approximately ages fourteen and seventeen or eighteen, he worked as a porter at the Union Hotel barbershop in Galesburg.<ref>''Prairie-Town Boy'', by Carl Sandburg, 1955. [http://www.timforsythe.com/tree/tjforsythe/sources_S1703 "timforsythe.com"] {{Webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130216221248/http://www.timforsythe.com/tree/tjforsythe/sources-S1703 |date=February 16, 2013 }}</ref> He later returned to the milk route for eighteen months before working as a bricklayer and a farm laborer on the wheat plains of [[Kansas]].<ref>''Selected Poems of Carl Sandburg'', edited by Rebecca West, 1954</ref>

After a period at [[Lombard College]] in Galesburg,<ref>[[Carl Sandburg College]]. [http://www.sandburg.edu/about-us/history "History"] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130207012257/http://www.sandburg.edu/about-us/history |date=February 7, 2013 }}</ref> Sandburg worked in various jobs, including as a hotel servant in [[Denver]] and a coal-heaver in [[Omaha, Nebraska]]. He began his writing career as a journalist for the ''[[Chicago Daily News]]'' and went on to write poetry, history, biographies, novels, children’s literature, and film reviews. He also collected and edited books of ballads and folklore. Sandburg lived primarily in [[Illinois]], [[Wisconsin]], and [[Michigan]] before moving to [[North Carolina]].

During the [[Spanish–American War]], Sandburg volunteered for military service and was stationed in [[Puerto Rico]] with the 6th Illinois Infantry,<ref>*{{cite book | last=Mason | first=Herbert Molloy Jr. |editor-last=Kolb |editor-first=Richard K. |date=1999 |title=VFW: Our First Century |location=[[Lenexa, Kansas]] |publisher=Addax Publishing Group |pages=[https://archive.org/details/vfwourfirstcentu00maso_0/page/13 13, 90] |isbn=1-88611072-7 |lccn=99-24943 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/vfwourfirstcentu00maso_0/page/13 }}</ref> landing at [[Guánica, Puerto Rico|Guánica]] on July 25, 1898, though he did not see combat. He attended the [[United States Military Academy]] in [[West Point, New York]] for two weeks but left after failing mathematics and grammar examinations. He returned to Galesburg and entered Lombard College, leaving without a degree in 1903.

Sandburg subsequently moved to [[Milwaukee]], [[Wisconsin]], where he worked for a newspaper and joined the Wisconsin Social Democratic Party, affiliated with the [[Socialist Party of America]]. Sandburg served as secretary to [[Emil Seidel]], Milwaukee’s socialist mayor from 1910 to 1912. Sandburg later stated that his experiences in Milwaukee were formative for his life and work.<ref name="Carl Sandburg and the Steichens">{{Cite web|url=http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/WIReader/WER0131.html|title = Carl Sandburg and the Steichens|date = January 1998}}</ref>

[[File:4646 N. Hermitage Ave.JPG|thumb|left|Sandburg's home in [[Ravenswood, Chicago]], where he wrote "Chicago", designated a [[List of Chicago Landmarks|Chicago Landmark]] in 2005.<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/zlup/Historic_Preservation/Publications/Carl_Sandburg_House.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.chicago.gov/content/dam/city/depts/zlup/Historic_Preservation/Publications/Carl_Sandburg_House.pdf |archive-date=2022-10-09 |url-status=live |title=Carl Sandburg House|date=October 4, 2006|publisher=City of Chicago Department of Planning and Development, Landmarks Division|access-date=August 28, 2019}}</ref>]]

In 1907, Sandburg met Lilian Steichen (1883–1977), sister of photographer [[Edward Steichen]], at the Milwaukee Social Democratic Party office. They married the following year and had three daughters. Their first daughter, Margaret, was born in 1911. The family later lived in [[Shorewood–Tower Hills–Harbert, Michigan|Harbert, Michigan]]; the [[Ravenswood, Chicago|Ravenswood]] neighborhood of Chicago; and then in [[Maywood, Illinois]].<ref name="Carl Sandburg and the Steichens" /><ref name=":0" /> From 1919 to 1930, they resided at 331 South York Street in [[Elmhurst, Illinois]].

During his years living in Chicago's western suburbs, Sandburg published several major works, including ''Chicago Poems'' (1916), ''Cornhuskers'' (1918), and ''Smoke and Steel'' (1920).<ref name="Danilov 198" /> He received a [[Pulitzer Prize]] in 1919, funded by a special grant from the [[Poetry Society of America]], for ''Cornhuskers''.<ref name="pulitzer" /> He also wrote three children’s books—''Rootabaga Stories'' (1922), ''Rootabaga Pigeons'' (1923), and ''Potato Face'' (1930)—as well as ''Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years'' (1926), ''[[The American Songbag]]'' (1927), and ''Good Morning, America'' (1928). The Elmhurst home was later demolished; the site is now a parking lot.

Sandburg moved to Michigan in 1930. In 1940, he won the [[Pulitzer Prize for History]] for ''[[Abraham Lincoln: The War Years]]'', the four-volume sequel to ''The Prairie Years'', and in 1951 received a second [[Pulitzer Prize for Poetry]], for ''Complete Poems''.<ref name="pulitzer">[http://www.pulitzer.org/bycat/Poetry "Poetry"]. The Pulitzer Prizes. Retrieved November 24, 2013.</ref><ref name="Pul">{{cite web |url= http://www.pulitzer.org/faceted_search/results/Carl-Sandburg |title=12 Search Results  |publisher=Pulitzer.org |access-date=April 25, 2013}}</ref><ref group="note">The [[Pulitzer Prize for Poetry]] was inaugurated in 1922 but the organization now considers the first winners to be three recipients of 1918 and 1919 special awards.</ref> In 1945, he settled at [[Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site|Connemara]], a {{convert|246|acre|adj=on}} estate in [[Flat Rock, Henderson County, North Carolina]], where he lived with his wife, daughters, and grandchildren and produced a substantial portion of his later writings.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.nps.gov/carl/learn/historyculture/sandburg-grandchildren.htm|title=Sandburg Grandchildren - Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site (U.S. National Park Service)|website=www.nps.gov|language=en|access-date=January 21, 2017}}</ref>

[[File:Carl-Sandburg-Remembrance-Rock.jpg|thumb|Remembrance Rock gravesite]]On February 12, 1959, during the 150th anniversary of [[Abraham Lincoln]]’s birth, Sandburg delivered an address before a joint session of Congress following actor [[Fredric March]]’s reading of the [[Gettysburg Address]].<ref>{{cite news | title= Nation Honor Lincoln On Sesquicentennial | url= http://dig.lib.niu.edu/ISHS/ishs-1959summer/ishs-1959summer-291.pdf | date= February 11, 1959 | publisher= [[Northern Illinois University Libraries]] | work= [[Yonkers Herald Statesman]] | agency= [[Associated Press]] | access-date= April 25, 2013 | quote= Congress gets into the act tomorrow, when a joint session will be held.  Carl Sandburg, famed Lincoln biographer, will give and address, and actor [[Fredric March]] will read the [[Gettysburg Address]]. | url-status= dead | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20131101065149/http://dig.lib.niu.edu/ISHS/ishs-1959summer/ishs-1959summer-291.pdf | archive-date= November 1, 2013 }}</ref> Sandburg supported the [[civil rights movement]] and received the [[NAACP]] Silver Plaque Award in recognition of his contributions to civil rights.<ref>{{cite news|title = Carl Sandburg cited by NAACP|newspaper=[[Baltimore Afro-American]]|date=30 November 1965|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=euMlAAAAIBAJ&pg=4863%2C6596609}}</ref>

Sandburg died of [[natural causes]] in 1967 and his body was cremated. The ashes were interred under "Remembrance Rock", a granite boulder located behind his birth house in Galesburg.<ref>{{cite news|title = Carl Sandburg's ashes placed under Remembrance Rock |page=61 |newspaper = The New York Times|date = 2 October 1967}}</ref><ref group=note>His wife and two daughters would also be interred there. See the signage.</ref>

==Career==

===Poetry and prose===
[[File:RootabagaStories.jpg|thumb|left|''Rootabaga Stories'' (book 1, 1922)]]

Much of Carl Sandburg's poetry, such as "[[Chicago (poem)|Chicago]]", focused on [[Chicago]], Illinois, where he spent time as a reporter for the ''[[Chicago Daily News]]'' and ''[[The Day Book]]''. His most famous description of the city is as "Hog Butcher for the World/Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat/Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler,/Stormy, Husky, Brawling, City of the Big Shoulders."

Sandburg earned [[Pulitzer Prize]]s for his collection ''The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg'', ''Corn Huskers'', and for his biography of [[Abraham Lincoln]] (''[[Abraham Lincoln: The War Years]]'').<ref name="Pul" /> Sandburg is also remembered by generations of children for his ''[[Rootabaga Stories]]'' and ''Rootabaga Pigeons'', a series of whimsical, sometimes melancholy stories he originally created for his own daughters. ''The Rootabaga Stories'' were born of Sandburg's desire for "American fairy tales" to match American childhood. He felt that the European stories involving royalty and knights were inappropriate, and so populated his stories with skyscrapers, trains, corn fairies and the "Five Marvelous Pretzels".

In 1919, Sandburg was assigned by his editor at the ''Daily News'' to do a series of reports on the working classes and tensions among whites and [[African Americans]].  The impetus for these reports were race riots that had broken out in other American cities. Ultimately, [[Chicago race riot of 1919|major riots]] broke out in Chicago too, but much of Sandburg's writing on the issues before the riots caused him to be seen as having a prophetic voice. A visiting philanthropist, [[Joel Spingarn]], who was also an official of the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]], read Sandburg's columns with interest and asked to publish them, as ''The Chicago Race Riots, July, 1919''.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/opinion/commentary/ct-opinion-flashback-chicago-race-riots-carl-sandburg-20190718-lh3xtxuf3nc4bhttja6dcf6epi-story.html |title=Flashback: Before Chicago erupted into race riots in 1919, Carl Sandburg reported on the fissures |last=Grossman |first=Ron |date=July 19, 2019 |work=Chicago Tribune  |access-date=July 21, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |url=https://archive.org/details/chicagoraceriots00sand |title=The Chicago Race Riots July, 1919 |last=Sandburg |first=Carl |publisher=Harcourt, Brace and Howe |year=1919 |location=New York |access-date=July 21, 2019}}</ref>

===Lincoln works===
Sandburg's popular multivolume biography ''Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years'', 2 vols. (1926) and ''Abraham Lincoln: The War Years'', 4 vols. (1939) are collectively "the best-selling, most widely read, and most influential book[s] about Lincoln."<ref name="Hurt">{{cite journal |last1=Hurt |first1=James |title=Sandburg's Lincoln within History |journal=Journal of the Abraham Lincoln Association |date=Winter 1999 |volume=20 |issue=1 |pages=55–65 |doi=10.5406/19457987.20.1.05 |hdl=2027/spo.2629860.0020.105 |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/j/jala/2629860.0020.105/--sandburg-s-lincoln-within-history|hdl-access=free }}</ref> The books have been through many editions, including a one-volume edition in 1954 prepared by Sandburg.

[[File:Sandburgs four volume work on Abraham Lincoln.png|thumb|Sandburg's biography of Lincoln]]

Sandburg's Lincoln scholarship had an enormous impact on the popular view of Lincoln. The books were adapted by [[Robert E. Sherwood]] for his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, ''Abe Lincoln in Illinois'' (1938) and [[David Wolper]]'s six-part dramatization for television, ''Sandburg's Lincoln'' (1974). He recorded excerpts from the biography and some of Lincoln's speeches for [[Caedmon Records]] in [[New York City]] in May 1957. He was awarded a [[Grammy Award]] in 1959 for [[Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album|Best Performance – Documentary Or Spoken Word (Other Than Comedy)]] for his recording of [[Aaron Copland]]'s ''[[Lincoln Portrait]]'' with the [[New York Philharmonic]]. Some historians suggest more Americans learned about Lincoln from Sandburg than from any other source.<ref>Niven, Penelope, ''Carl Sandburg: A Biography'' (New York: Scribner's, 1991), p. 536.</ref>

The books garnered critical praise and attention for Sandburg, including the 1940 [[Pulitzer Prize for History]] for the four-volume ''[[Abraham Lincoln: The War Years|The War Years]]''. But Sandburg's works on Lincoln also received substantial criticism.  [[William E. Barton]], who had published a Lincoln biography in 1925, wrote that Sandburg's book "is not history, is not even biography" because of its lack of original research and uncritical use of evidence, but Barton nevertheless thought it was "real literature and a delightful and important contribution to the ever-lengthening shelf of really good books about Lincoln."<ref>Barton, William E., "Review of The Prairie Years," ''American Historical Review'' 31 (July 1926): pp. 809–11.</ref> Historian [[Milo Quaife|Milo Milton Quaife]] criticized Sandburg for not documenting his sources and questioned the accuracy of ''The Prairie Years'', noting they contain a number of factual errors.<ref name="Hurt"/> Others have complained ''The Prairie Years'' and ''The War Years'' contain too much material that is neither biography nor history, saying the books are instead "sentimental poeticizing" by Sandburg.<ref name="Hurt"/> Sandburg himself may have viewed his works more as an American epic than as a mere biography, a view also mirrored by other reviewers.<ref name="Hurt"/>

===Folk music===

Sandburg's 1927 anthology the ''[[American Songbag]]'' enjoyed enormous popularity, going through many editions, and Sandburg himself was perhaps the first American urban folk singer, accompanying himself on solo guitar at lectures and poetry recitals, and in recordings, long before the first or the second folk revival movements (of the 1940s and 1960s, respectively).<ref>Malone, Bill C., and David Stricklin (2003). ''Southern Music/American Music'' (University Press of Kentucky, 2003), p. 33.</ref> According to the musicologist [[Judith Tick]]:
<blockquote>As a populist poet, Sandburg bestowed a powerful dignity on what the '20s called the "American scene" in a book he called a "ragbag of stripes and streaks of color from nearly all ends of the earth ... rich with the diversity of the United States." Reviewed widely in journals ranging from the ''New Masses'' to ''Modern Music'', the ''American Songbag'' influenced a number of musicians. Pete Seeger, who calls it a "landmark", saw it "almost as soon as it came out." The composer Elie Siegmeister took it to Paris with him in 1927, and he and his wife Hannah "were always singing these songs. That was home. That was where we belonged."<ref>Tick, Judith, ''Ruth Crawford Seeger, A Composer's Search for American Music'' (Oxford University Press, 1997), p. 57.</ref></blockquote>

===Film===
Sandburg said he considered working on [[D. W. Griffith]]'s ''[[Intolerance (film)|Intolerance]]'' (1916), but his first film work was when he signed on to work on the production of ''[[The Greatest Story Ever Told]]'' (1965) in July 1960 for a year, receiving an "in creative association with Carl Sandburg" credit on the film.<ref>{{cite magazine|magazine=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|title=Carl Sandburg on 20th's 'Greatest'|date=July 6, 1960|page=24|url=https://archive.org/stream/variety219-1960-07#page/n23/mode/1up|access-date=February 6, 2021|via=[[Archive.org]]}}</ref>

==Legacy==
[[File:Carl Sandburg by H. J. Turner.png|thumb|right|Portrait by H. J. Turner, 1923]]

===Commemoration===
Carl Sandburg's boyhood home in Galesburg is now operated by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency as the [[Carl Sandburg State Historic Site]]. The site contains the cottage Sandburg was born in, a modern visitor center, and small garden with a large stone called Remembrance Rock, under which his and his wife's ashes are buried.<ref>{{cite web |url= http://www.sandburg.org/ |title=Carl Sandburg Historic Site Association |publisher=Sandburg.org |access-date=April 25, 2013}}</ref> Sandburg's home of 22 years in [[Flat Rock, Henderson County, North Carolina]], is preserved by the [[National Park Service]] as the [[Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site]]. [[Carl Sandburg College]] is located in Sandburg's birthplace of [[Galesburg, Illinois]]. During the Spanish-American War, Sandburg was stationed at Camp Alger in Fairfax County, Virginia and so the county has both a Sandburg Road near the spot where the camp was located and a Carl Sandburg Middle School.

[[Image:Carl Sandburg quote, Hereford, TX IMG 4875.JPG|upright|left|thumb|Sandburg on historical roots, displayed at [[Deaf Smith County, Texas|Deaf Smith County]] Museum, [[Hereford, Texas]] ]]

On January 6, 1978, the 100th anniversary of his birth, the [[United States Postal Service]] issued a [[commemorative stamp]] honoring Sandburg. The spare design consists of a profile originally drawn by his friend [[William Arthur Smith|William A. Smith]] in 1952, along with Sandburg's own distinctive autograph.<ref>[[Scott Catalogue]].</ref>

[[The Rare Book & Manuscript Library (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign)]] (RBML)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.library.uiuc.edu/rbx/ |title=Rare Book and Manuscript Library |publisher=Library.uiuc.edu |access-date=April 25, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071010042641/http://www.library.uiuc.edu/rbx/ |archive-date=October 10, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref> houses the Carl Sandburg Papers. The bulk of the collection was purchased directly from Carl Sandburg and his family. In total, the RBML owns over 600 cubic feet of Sandburg's papers, including photographs, correspondence, and manuscripts.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.library.illinois.edu/rbx/archon/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=1094&q=sandburg |title=Carl Sandburg Papers (Ashville accession) |publisher=library.illinois.edu |access-date=December 18, 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.library.illinois.edu/rbx/archon/index.php?p=collections/controlcard&id=30&q=sandburg |title=Carl Sandburg Papers (Connemara accession) |publisher=library.illinois.edu |access-date=December 18, 2014}}</ref>

In 2011, Sandburg was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://chicagoliteraryhof.org/inductees/profile/carl-sandburg |title=Carl Sandburg |date=2011 |website=Chicago Literary Hall of Fame |language=en |access-date=October 14, 2017}}</ref>

===Namesakes===
[[Carl Sandburg Village]] was a 1960s urban renewal project in the [[Near North Side, Chicago]]. Financed by the city, it is located between Clark and LaSalle St. between Division Street and North Ave. Solomon & Cordwell, architects. In 1979, Carl Sandburg Village was converted to condominium ownership.

Numerous schools are named for Sandburg throughout the United States, and he was present at some of these schools' dedications. (Some years after attending the 1954 dedication of [[Carl Sandburg High School]] in [[Orland Park, Illinois]], Sandburg returned for an unannounced visit; the school's principal at first mistook him for a [[hobo]].)<ref>{{cite news |last=Koziol |first=Ronald |title=A Poet's Legacy at Sandburg High |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1991-01-06-9101020358-story.html |work=The Chicago Tribune |date=January 6, 1991 |access-date=December 31, 2025}}</ref>[[Sandburg Halls]], a student residence hall at the [[University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee]], carries a plaque commemorating Sandburg's roles as an organizer for the Social Democratic Party and as personal secretary to [[Emil Seidel]], Milwaukee's first Socialist mayor.

Carl Sandburg Library opened in [[Livonia, Michigan]], in 1961. The name was recommended by the Library Commission as an example of an American author representing the best of literature of the Midwest. Carl Sandburg had taught at the [[University of Michigan]] for a time.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://livonia.lib.mi.us/sandburg |title=Carl Sandburg Library Homepage |publisher=Livonia.lib.mi.us |year=2008 |access-date=April 25, 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121216050707/http://livonia.lib.mi.us/sandburg |archive-date=December 16, 2012 }}</ref>

Galesburg opened [[Sandburg Mall]] in 1975, named in honor of Sandburg.

Amtrak added the ''[[Illinois Zephyr and Carl Sandburg|Carl Sandburg]]'' train in 2006 to supplement the ''[[Illinois Zephyr and Carl Sandburg|Illinois Zephyr]]'' on the [[Chicago Union Station|Chicago]]–[[Quincy station (Amtrak)|Quincy]] route.<ref>Amtrak Press Release, October 8, 2006. [http://www.amtrak.com/servlet/ContentServer?pagename=Amtrak/am2Copy/News_Release_Page&c=am2Copy&cid=1093554066642&ssid=180 Amtrak.com.]</ref>

[https://sandburgms.fcps.edu/about/history Carl Sandburg Middle School] in Alexandria, Virginia, part of [[Fairfax County Public Schools]], was named in honor of Sandburg in 1985.

In 2000, the Chicago Public Library Foundation created the Carl Sandburg Literary Award, given annually to "an acclaimed author whose work has enhanced the public’s awareness of the written word."<ref>{{Cite web |date=2023-05-02 |title=About the Chicago Public Library Foundation Awards |url=https://cplfoundation.org/awards/archive/ |access-date=2025-10-20 |website=Chicago Public Library Foundation |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.cplfoundation.org/site/PageServer?pagename=events_sandburgawards_co|title=October 23 Dinner Honors Allende, Lewis and Sneed|publisher=[[Chicago Public Library]]|access-date= January 3, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131202230958/http://www.cplfoundation.org/site/PageServer?pagename=events_sandburgawards_co|archive-date= December 2, 2013}}</ref>

== Politics ==

Carl Sandburg began his political involvement as an organizer for the Social Democratic Party of Wisconsin, affiliated with the Socialist Party of America, and served as secretary to Milwaukee’s socialist mayor Emil Seidel from 1910 to 1912. Initially a committed [[Socialism|socialist]], he left the Socialist Party in 1917 due to disagreements with its opposition to U.S. participation in [[World War I]], instead supporting President Woodrow Wilson’s decision to enter the conflict.<ref>«Searching for Sandburg». *The New York Times*. 1996.</ref>

Although Sandburg continued to hold some socialist sympathies—such as voting for Socialist Party candidate [[Eugene V. Debs]] in the [[1920 United States presidential election]]—he later described himself as a "radical independent". During the 1920s, his political views moved to the right, and he developed a strong interest in Abraham Lincoln, whose life and leadership became central themes in his work. This interest culminated in his publication of ''Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years'' (1926) and ''Abraham Lincoln: The War Years'' (1939). His study of Lincoln reflected an increasing alignment with [[liberalism]].<ref>«Carl Sandburg». *Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Literature*.</ref>

In the 1930s, Sandburg’s political orientation shifted toward the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic Party]]. He supported President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and the [[New Deal]], drawing parallels between Roosevelt’s policies and Lincoln’s leadership during the Civil War. Sandburg publicly expressed his support for New Deal programs such as [[Social Security (United States)|Social Security]] and federal employment initiatives through his writings and public appearances.<ref>«Carl Sandburg». *NCpedia*. 2013.</ref><ref>«Political Leadership and the Need for a New America». *History News Network*. 2019.</ref>

By the 1950s, Sandburg endorsed Democratic presidential candidate [[Adlai Stevenson II]] in the 1952 and 1956 presidential elections, participating in campaign activities and publicly commending Stevenson’s platform.<ref>«The Other Carl Sandburg». *IWW Store*.</ref> In 1960, he supported [[John F. Kennedy]]’s presidential campaign, speaking at rallies and expressing approval of Kennedy’s [[New Frontier]] program, which he viewed as a continuation of Roosevelt’s legacy.<ref>«John F. Kennedy and Carl Sandburg». *ECU Special Collections*. 2006.</ref>

== In other media ==
{{more citations needed|section|date=January 2017}}
*[[William Saroyan]] wrote a short story about Sandburg in his 1971 book ''[[Letters from 74 rue Taitbout]] or Don't Go But If You Must Say Hello To Everybody''.
* Sandburg's "Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come" from ''The People, Yes'' was a slogan of the German peace movement ("''Stell dir vor, es ist Krieg, und keiner geht hin''"); however, it is often falsely attributed to [[Bertolt Brecht]].<ref name="Brecht">{{cite news|url=http://www.zeit.de/2004/34/N-Zitat_4|date=August 12, 2004|title=von Brecht?|newspaper=Die Zeit}}</ref>
* Daniel Steven Crafts' ''[[The Song and The Slogan]]'' is an orchestral composition built around recited passages from Sandburg's "Prairie".
* Peter Louis van Dijk's "Windy City Songs", based on the ''Chicago'' poems, was performed by the [[Chicago Children's Choir]] and the [[Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University]] Choir in 2007.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://choir.mandela.ac.za/Choir-History|title=Nelson Mandela University Choir History|access-date=October 16, 2019}}</ref>
* [[Bob Gibson (musician)|Bob Gibson]]'s "The Courtship of Carl Sandburg", starring [[Tom Amandes]] as Sandburg<ref>[https://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/kadler/public_html/rmcguinn/gibson.html "Bob Gibson's 'The Courtship of Carl Sandburg'"], ''lyon.edu''. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070111151210/https://www.lyon.edu/webdata/users/kadler/public_html/rmcguinn/gibson.html |date=January 11, 2007 }}.</ref>
* In [[Jonathan Lethem]]'s novel ''[[Dissident Gardens]]'' the main character Rose Zimmer became an [[Abraham Lincoln]] devotee after reading Sandburg's biography.  Her copy of the six volumes became the centerpiece of her shrine to Lincoln.
* [[Sufjan Stevens]]'s "Come on! Feel the Illinoise! Part I: The World's Columbian Exposition Part II: Carl Sandburg Visits Me in a Dream" (from ''[[Illinois (Sufjan Stevens album)|Illinois]]'').
*Composer [[Phyllis Zimmerman]] set Sandburg's poems to music in her choral composition ''Fog'', which was recorded and produced on CD.<ref>{{Cite web|title=earthsongs, one world · many voices|url=http://earthsongschoralmusic.com/|access-date=2021-05-31|website=earthsongschoralmusic.com}}</ref>
*In 2016, composer and conductor [[Michael Tilson Thomas]] premiered his musical theater piece ''[https://michaeltilsonthomas.com/compositions/four-preludes-on-playthings-of-the-wind/ Four Preludes on Playthings of the Wind]'' based on the Sandburg poem from the collection ''Smoke and Steel'', for three singers, chamber orchestra and bar band. 

<!-- DO NOT CHANGE THE NAME OF THE ALBUM: the album is "Illinois", one track is "Come on Feel the Illinoise": see the Talk:Sufjan_Stevens page-->

==Bibliography==

{{Main|Carl Sandburg bibliography}}

{{col-begin}}
{{col-2}}
*''In Reckless Ecstasy'' (1904) (poetry) (originally published as Charles Sandburg)
*''Incidentals'' (1904) (poetry and prose) (originally published as Charles Sandburg)
*''Plaint of a Rose'' (1908) (poetry) (originally published as Charles Sandburg)
*''[[Joseffy]]'' (1910) (prose) (originally published as Charles Sandburg)
*''You and Your Job'' (1910) (prose) (originally published as Charles Sandburg)
*''Chicago Poems'' (1916) (poetry)
*''Cornhuskers'' (1918) (poetry)
*''Chicago Race Riots'' (1919) (prose) (with an introduction by Walter Lippmann)
*''Clarence Darrow of Chicago'' (1919) (prose)
*''Smoke and Steel'' (1920) (poetry)
*''[[Rootabaga Stories]]'' (1922) (children's stories)
*''Slabs of the Sunburnt West'' (1922) (poetry)
*''Rootabaga Pigeons'' (1923) (children's stories)
*''Selected Poems'' (1926) (poetry)
*''[[Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years]]'' (1926) (biography)
*''The American Songbag'' (1927) (folk songs)<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=FpZQAAAAIBAJ&pg=6654,1985540&dq=wmaq&hl=en|title=Carl Sandburg Sings On WMAQ Today|date=January 10, 1928|work=The Milwaukee Journal|access-date=December 6, 2010}}{{Dead link|date=September 2023 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/americansongbag029895mbp |title=The American Songbag (1927)|access-date=April 25, 2013}}</ref>
*''Songs of America'' (1927) (folk songs) (collected by Sandburg; edited by Alfred V. Frankenstein)
*''Abe Lincoln Grows Up'' (1928) (biography [primarily for children])
*''Good Morning, America'' (1928) (poetry)
*''Steichen the Photographer'' (1929) (history)
*''Early Moon'' (1930) (poetry)
*''Potato Face'' (1930) (children's stories)
*''Mary Lincoln: Wife and Widow'' (1932) (biography)
*''[[The People, Yes]]'' (1936) (poetry)
*''[[Abraham Lincoln: The War Years]]'' (1939) (biography)
*''Storm over the Land'' (1942) (biography) (excerpts from Sandburg's own ''[[Abraham Lincoln: The War Years]]'')
*''Road to Victory'' (1942) (exhibition catalog) (text by Sandburg; images compiled by [[Edward Steichen]] and published by the [[Museum of Modern Art]])
*''Home Front Memo'' (1943) (essays)
*''[[Remembrance Rock]]'' (1948) (novel)
{{col-2}}
*''Lincoln Collector: the story of the [[Oliver R. Barrett]] Lincoln collection'' (1949) (prose)
*''The New American Songbag'' (1950) (folk songs)
*''Complete Poems'' (1950) (poetry)
*''The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle and Who Was In It'' (1950) (children's story)
*''Always the Young Strangers'' (1953) (autobiography)
*''Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years'' (1954) (illustrated one-volume edition)
*''Selected Poems of Carl Sandburg'' (1954) (poetry) (edited by Rebecca West)
*''[[The Family of Man]]'' (1955) (exhibition catalog) (introduction; images compiled by [[Edward Steichen]])
*''Prairie-Town Boy'' (1955) (autobiography) (essentially excerpts from ''Always the Young Strangers'')
*''Sandburg Range'' (1957) (prose and poetry)
*''Harvest Poems, 1910–1960'' (1960) (poetry)
*''Wind Song'' (1960) (poetry)
*''[[The World of Carl Sandburg]]'' (1960) (stage production) (adapted and directed by [[Norman Corwin]], dramatic readings by [[Bette Davis]] and [[Leif Erickson (actor)|Leif Erickson]], singing and guitar by [[Clark Allen]], with closing cameo by Sandburg himself)<!--references moved to article-->
*''Carl Sandburg at Gettysburg'' (1961) (documentary)
*''Honey and Salt'' (1963) (poetry)
*''The Letters of Carl Sandburg'' (1968) (autobiographical/correspondence) (edited by Herbert Mitgang)
*''Breathing Tokens'' (poetry by Sandburg, edited by Margaret Sandburg) (1978) (poetry)
*''Ever the Winds of Chance'' (1983) (autobiography) (started by Sandburg, completed by Margaret Sandburg and George Hendrick)
*''Carl Sandburg at the Movies: a poet in the silent era, 1920–1927'' (1985) (selections of his reviews of silent movies; collected and edited by Dale Fetherling and Doug Fetherling)
*''Billy Sunday and other poems'' (1993) (edited with an introduction by George Hendrick and Willene Hendrick)
*''Poems for Children Nowhere Near Old Enough to Vote'' (1999) (compiled and with an introduction by George and Willene Hendrick)
*''Poems for the People.'' (1999) 73 newfound poems from his early years in Chicago, edited with an introduction by George Hendrick and Willene Hendrick
*''Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and the War Years'' (2007) (illustrated edition with an introduction by Alan Axelrod)
{{col-end}}

==See also==
{{Portal|Poetry|Novels}}
*[[Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site]]
{{clear}}

==References==

===Footnotes===
{{Reflist|group=note}}

===Notes===
{{Reflist}}

{{IL Poets Laureate|state=autocollapse}}

== Further reading ==
* Niven, Penelope. ''Carl Sandburg: A Biography''. New York: Scribner's, 1991.
* Sandburg, Carl. ''The Letters of Carl Sandburg''. New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1968.
* Sandburg, Helga. ''A Great and Glorious Romance: The Story of Carl Sandburg and Lilian Steichen''. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1978.

==External links==
{{wikiquote}}
{{wikisource|works=or}}
* [http://www.sandburg.org/ Carl Sandburg's birthplace] in [[Galesburg, IL]] (at sandburg.org)
* [http://www.uncharted101.com/carl-sandburg-birthplace-galesburg-il/ Carl Sandburg Birthplace, Galesburg, IL] (at uncharted101.com)
* [https://www.nps.gov/carl/index.htm Carl Sandburg Home, North Carolina] from the [[National Park Service]]
* {{Gutenberg author | id=32447| name=Carl Sandburg}}
* {{Internet Archive author |sname=Carl August Sandburg}}
* {{Librivox author |id=36}}
* [https://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/carl-sandburg-education-carl-sandburg-timeline/2320/ The Day Carl Sandburg Died], PBS ''American Masters'' video
* [http://netnebraska.org/media/media.php?bin=NET&vidgroup=LGFG0000247  ''Prayers for the People: Carl Sandburg's Poetry and Songs''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191018045418/http://netnebraska.org/interactive-multimedia/television/carl-sandburg-prayers-people |date=2019-10-18 }}, a [[Nebraska Educational Telecommunications]] film, University of Nebraska (video, 1 hour)
* [http://www.library.illinois.edu/rbx/sandburg.html Carl Sandburg databases] from the University of Illinois
* [https://vault.fbi.gov/Carl%20Sandburg/Carl%20Sandburg%20Part%201%20of%201/view Carl Sandburg] from the FBI website
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150818164721/http://news.illinois.edu/news/13/0118unpublished_gun_poem_CarlSandburg.html Previously unknown Sandburg poem focuses on power of the gun]
* {{cite journal |last=Heitman |first= Danny|title=A Workingman's Poet |url=http://www.neh.gov/humanities/2013/marchapril/feature/workingmans-poet |journal=[[Humanities (magazine)|Humanities]] |date= March–April 2013 |publisher=National Endowment For The Humanities |volume=34 |issue=2 |access-date=6 January 2015}}
* {{LCAuth|n79011105|Carl Sandburg|276|}}
* [http://lccn.loc.gov/n50015804 Helga Sandburg] at LC Authorities, with 20 records
* [http://openparksnetwork.org/explore/parks/carl/ Carl Sandburg Home NHS images on Open Parks Network]
* [http://www.oldmagazinearticles.com/article-summary/1920s_carl_sandburg_film_review_poem_about_charlie_chaplin#.XtF7DGhKizk ''Without The Cain and The Derby'', a poem by Carl Sandburg: ''Vanity Fair'', May, 1922]
* {{IBDB name}}
* {{Playbill person}}

=== Archival materials ===
*[http://mms.newberry.org/xml/xml_files/BarrettSandburg.xml Oliver Barrett-Carl Sandburg Papers] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150309021709/http://mms.newberry.org/xml/xml_files/BarrettSandburg.xml |date=2015-03-09 }} at [[Newberry Library]]
*[https://findingaids.uncc.edu/repositories/4/resources/42 North Carolina Writers Photographs Collection], J Murrey Atkins Library, UNC Charlotte
*[https://findingaids.uncc.edu/repositories/4/archival_objects/28718 Sandburg Series in the Harry Golden papers], J Murrey Atkins Library, UNC Charlotte
*[https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.FALKENAUSANDBURG Guide to the Carl Sandburg and Ruth Falkenau Correspondence 1919-1930] at the [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/scrc/ University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center]
*[https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/scrc/findingaids/view.php?eadid=ICU.SPCL.SANDBURG Guide to the Carl Sandburg-Joseph Halle Schaffner Collection 1927-1969] at the [https://www.lib.uchicago.edu/scrc/ University of Chicago Special Collections Research Center]
*[[hdl:10079/fa/beinecke.sandbrg|Sandburg-Page Papers]]. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library.
*[https://archivesspace.amherst.edu/repositories/2/resources/155 Alan Jenkins (AC 1924) Carl Sandburg Collection] at the Amherst College Archives & Special Collections

{{Carl Sandburg}}
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| title = Awards for Carl Sandburg
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{{Grammy Award for Best Spoken Word Album 1960s}}
{{PulitzerPrize HistoryAuthors 1926–1950}}
{{PulitzerPrize PoetryAuthors 1951–1975}}
{{PulitzerPrize SpecialCitations Letters}}
}}

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