American writer Carl Sandburg is best known for his poetry. He is often regarded as Walt Whitman's successor in celebrating the American spirit. He won two Pulitzer Prizes, one for his poetry (Corn Huskers, 1919) and another for a biography of Abraham Lincoln.
Life of Carl Sandburg in a Nutshell
Sandburg, the son of a Swedish immigrant, was born on January 6, 1878, in Galesburg, Illinois. At the age of 13, he left school and traveled around Kansas as a hobo.
Later, he joined a volunteer force serving in Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War with the Illinois Infantry in 1898. After the war he attended Lombard College in Galesburg but in 1903, he left without a degree.
Writing Career
Sandburg began writing as a journalist for the Chicago Daily News, and later, he wrote poetry, biography, history, children's books, novels and film reviews. His first poems were published by his teacher while Sandburg was still in his 20s. In 1902 he left college and took a more active interest in politics. In 1913 Sandburg moved with his wife, Lillian Steichen, to Chicago, where he became a journalist on the Day Book and the Daily News and contributed to the magazine Poetry. In 1920, he wrote children's stories, Rootabaga Stories.
Honors and Awards
Sandburg was awarded the Levinson Prize by Poetry in 1914 for his many contributions, establishing him as an important voice in American literature. Shortly, his series of poetic volumes on Midwest (Corn Huskers) and particularly the people and city of Chicago (Chicago Poems) appeared. Sandburg's championship of the working man combined with use of free verse and everyday language at first shocked readers.
His Complete Poems won a Pulitzer Prize in 1951, and he received another for his biography of Abraham Lincoln (Abraham Lincoln: The War Years). He was awarded a Grammy Award in 1959 for Best Performance - Documentary Or Spoken Word (Other than Comedy) for his recording of Aaron Copland's Lincoln Portrait with the New York Philharmonic.
Sandburg spent most of his life in the Midwest before moving to North Carolina. He died at the age of 89, July 22, 1967. His home is preserved as Home National Historic Site and there's a Carl Sandburg College in his birthplace.
Carl Sandburg Poems and Biographies
- Chicago Poems, 1916
- Corn Huskers, 1919, Poetry
- Smoke and Steel, 1920, poetry
- Slabs of the Sunburnt West, 1922, poetry
- Abraham Lincoln: the Prairie Years, 1926
- Good Morning, America, 1928
- Abraham Lincoln: the War Years, 1939
- Complete Poems, 1950
- Always the Young Strangers, 1953, autobiography
- Selected poems of Carl Sandburg, 1954, poetry, edited by Rebecca West
- Sandburg Range, 1957, prose and poetry
- Harvest Poems, 1910-1960, poetry
- Wind Song, 1960, poetry
- Honey and Salt, 1963, poetry
- Breathing Tokens, poetry, edited by Margaret Sandburg, 1978
- Ever the Winds of Chance, 1983, autobiography, started by Sandburg, completed by Margaret Sandburg and George Hendrick
- Billy Sunday and other Poems, 1993
- Poems for Children Nowhere Near Old Enough to Vote, 1999
- Abraham Lincoln: the prairie years and the war years, 2007, illustrated edition with an introduction by Alan Axelrod
Sources:
Goring, Rosemary (editor), Larousse Dictionary of Writers. New York: Larousse, 1994
McGovern, Una (editor), Chambers Biographical Dictionary. Edinburgh: Chambers Harrap, 2002
Ousby, Ian. The Cambridge Guide to Literature in English. Cambridge: CUP, 1993
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