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| Carl August Sandburg (1878--1967) |
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| Sandburg's house, Flat Rock, North carolina |
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| Remembrance Rock, Galesburg |
Carl
Sandburg is one of the most popular modern poets of America who won the Pulitzer
Prize, two times for his poetry and once for his biography of Abraham Lincoln.
As an American poet, biographer, social commentator, journalist and children’s
story writer, he was regarded as a major figure in contemporary literature
especially for his collected poems like “Chicago Poems”(1916), “Corn huskers” (1918),
and “Smoke and Steel” (1920). He wrote four books for children: Rootbaga
Stories” (1922), “Rootbaga Pigeons” (1923), “Rootbaga Country” (1929) and
“Potato Face (1930) which are filled with fictional characters with a moral
message. He modelled his fictional land based on the American Midwest.
He was born on January 6, 1878, in Galesburg, Illinois. His parents August and Clara Johnson emigrated from the north of Sweden. His father
worked as an assistant to a blacksmith in Chicago and Burlington. His early
life exposed him to top struggles of life. He held various jobs including a farm
laborer, brick layer, driver of a milk wagon, dishwasher and as a soldier. These
experiences gave him an insight into the American life in various aspects. He
developed ability to write verses that resonated with American speech. He
covered a wide range of themes from the American landscape to struggles of
working class.
As his family was poor, Sandburg left the
school at the age of thirteen and began driving a milk wagon. From the age of
fourteen to eighteen, he worked as a porter at the Union Hotel barber shop in
Galesburg. Later he worked in milk
industry for eighteen months. Then he
became a bricklayer and a farm laborer on the farms in Kansas. After a brief
interval at Lombard college in Galesburg, he became a hotel servant in Denver
and later a coal-heaver in Omaha. He started his career as a journalist for the
Chicago Daily News. He spent most of
his time in Illinois, Wisconsin before moving to North Carolina.
At the age
of seventeen he served for eight months in Puerto Rico during the
Spanish-American war. Later he continued
his studies in Lombard for four years but could not receive his degree. After
college Sandburg worked as an advertising writer and a newspaper reporter in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin. There he met Lillian Steichen (1833-1977), whom he called
Paula and married her. As a socialist sympathizer Sandburg worked for the
Socialist-Democrat party and later acted as secretary to the first mayor of
Milwaukee from 1910 to 1912. The Sandburgs moved to Harbert, Michigan and then
to suburban Chicago, Illinois in 1912 where he became the editorial writer for
the “Chicago Daily News.” He wrote poetry, history, biography, children’s
stories and film reviews. He collected
and edited books of ballads and folklore. They lived in Evanston, Illinois, before settling
at south York Street in Elmhurst, Illinois from 1919 to 1930.
During this
time Sandburg wrote Chicago Poems (1916), Corn huskers (1918), Smoke and steel
(1920). He became famous with his collection “Chicago Poems (1916). He was
awarded Pulitzer Prize in 1919 for his poetry “Corn huskers.” In 1920 he
published “Smoke and Steel” where he found beauty in modern industrialism. The
folk songs he sang were published in two collections: “The American Songbag” (1927)
and “New American Songbag” (1950) as books for children. The family moved to
Michigan in 1930.
Carl
Sandburg, just like Walt Whitman, was an ardent admirer of Abraham Lincoln
right from his boyhood. He meticulously collected material from different
sources and published Lincoln biography in six volumes. He published “Linclon: The
Prairie years” in 1926. In 1929 he published another biography about the life of his brother-in-law, "Steichen, the photographer." In 1932 he published “Mary Lincoln, wife and Widow”
which shows his keen interest in Lincoln’s life and career. He published
“Lincoln: The war years” (four volumes) in in 1939. He was awarded Pulitzer
Prize for his biography “Lincoln: The war years” in 1940. In 1948 Sandburg published a long novel "Remembrance Rock" which describes the American experience from Plymouth Rock to World War II.
In 1945 he
moved to Connemara, a 246-acre rural estate in Flat Rock, North Carolina. Here
he lived with his wife, three daughters and two grandchildren. On commemoration
of 150th birth anniversary of Lincoln’s birth on Feb.12, 1959,
Congress met in joint session. Sandburg was given a chance to address the
audience on this occasion. He received his third Pulitzer Prize for his
“Complete Poems” in 1950. He published his final volumes of verse “Harvest
Poems” in 1960 and ‘Honey and salt” in 1963. Carl Sandburg passed away on 22nd
July 1967 at his home in Flat Rock, North Carolina. His body was cremated, and
ashes were interred beneath a red granite boulder "Remembrance Rock" in the Carl Sandburg Park, Galesburg, Knox County, Illinois.
Lyndon
Johnson, President of America, paid tribute to him saying” Carl Sandburg was
more than the voice of America, more than the poet of its strength and genius,
he was America.” Sandburg was inducted to the American Poets’ corner at the
cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York in 2028.
His poetry is
filled with sayings, scraps of anecdotes, conversations, and descriptions of
steel mills and farms. He portrayed the living conditions of laborers, workers
and their problems. He wrote nearly 1600 poems in his lifetime. Amy Lowell
called “Chicago Poems” as “one of the original books this age has produced.”
The historian Charles A. Beard called “Abraham Lincoln: the prairie years” a
noble monument of American literature.” “Abraham Lincoln; The war years” (first
two volumes) was published in 1939. These volumes cover the period from
Lincoln’s birth till his election as president of America. These volumes focus
mainly on the American civil war period. He was awarded Pulitzer Prize in 1940 for this
biography. A one volume edition was published in 1954. Sandburg collected and
classified material for his biography for thirty years and it took another
fifteen years to type the material on his typewriter. Americans learned about Lincoln
more from Sandburg than from any other American. Some critics commented that
his biography was not a well-researched and well-documented. It is neither
biography nor history but sentimental poetizing. But many readers view it as an American epic
rather than as a mere biography.
He became
famous as the singing bard of America with human-driven approach. He uses
simple and straightforward language. His poetry bustles with the energy of
skyscrapers, chorus girls, and corrupt mayors. His verse moves with the
rhythmic pace of Jazz through urban streets of the big city. During Sandburg’s
lifetime the mid-western region went through transformation from an
agricultural-based economy to industrialized centerpiece of the country. Like Walt Whitman he welcomed the
industrialized city culture despite its few drawbacks. Like other modern poets
he forged his unique American style without imitating conventional European
style and verse. Along with modern writers like Theodore Dreiser, Sherwood
Anderson, Edgar Lee Masters and Ben Hecht, Sandburg is regarded as a member of
the Chicago Literary Renaissance. Sanburg supported Civil rights movement and
was honored by NAACP with the silver plaque award as the major prophet of civil
rights.
"Money buys everything except love, personality, freedom, immortality, silence and peace." -- Sandburg.
"The secret of happiness is to admire without desiring."
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4th August, 2024 Somaseshu Gutala
