Carl Sandburg
Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – 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).[2] 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".[3] 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."[4]
This article is about the writer. For the passenger train service, see Carl Sandburg (train).
Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandberg[1]
January 6, 1878
Galesburg, Illinois, U.S.
July 22, 1967
Flat Rock, North Carolina, U.S.
Journalist, author
Lombard College (non-graduate)
- Chicago Poems
- The People, Yes
- Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years and The War Years
- Rootabaga Stories
- Pulitzer Prize (1919, 1940, 1951)
- Robert Frost Medal (1952)
1898
Private
6th Illinois Infantry
3
Edward Steichen (brother-in-law)
George Crile Jr. (son-in-law)
Mary Calderone (niece)
Legacy[edit]
Commemoration[edit]
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's center, and small garden with a large stone called Remembrance Rock, under which his and his wife's ashes are buried.[28] 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.