Carl Sandburg is a world-renowned American poet. Born into a family of poor immigrants, from a young age he had to earn his living by hard work. Due to a lack of funds, he was unable to get a higher education. But this did not stop him from following his dream and devoting himself to poetry. Read more on ichicago.net.
Early years of life
The poet and writer C. Sandburg was born on January 6, 1878, in a small three-room cottage in the town of Galesburg, near Chicago, Illinois. The house was furnished in accordance with the living conditions of a typical working-class family. His parents were Swedish immigrants August and Clara Sandberg.
His father worked as a blacksmith’s assistant on the Chicago Railroad. Carl was the second of seven children in the family, affectionately called Charlie. A year after the child’s birth, his parents sold the small cottage and moved to a slightly larger house in the same Galesburg.
Little Carl had to work since childhood. He left school after finishing the eighth grade. Since then, for ten years, he had been doing various types of work (construction, shining shoes, threshing wheat and working in a hotel).
In 1897, C. Sandburg set out to travel across America without any savings. It was hard physical work and travel that shaped the views and beliefs of the future poet. Traveling as a vagabond, Sandburg learned many folk songs and saw with his own eyes the contrasting difference between rich and poor Americans.
The Spanish-American War erupted in 1898. The young Sandburg volunteered for service. He was sent to Puerto Rico. It was relatively quiet there. The soldier spent all his days fighting the heat.
After returning home, C. Sandburg entered college. His student years helped shape his literary talent. At college, the future poet joined the Poor Writers’ Club. It was a non-formal writer’s organization. During the club’s meetings, its members read and critiqued poetry.
The founder of Poor Writers was college professor Philip Green Wright, a liberal with socialist views who inspired the young Sandburg’s talent in every way possible. However, in his final year of study, the young poet was forced to leave the institution due to a significant lack of funds.
Over the next two years, C. Sandburg created poetry and sold stereoscopic images. Then his first poetry collection, In Reckless Ecstasy, was published in 1904. Subsequently, two more volumes by Carl Sandburg appeared, Incidentals (published in 1907) and The Plaint of a Rose (published in 1908).
Becoming a poet and writer
In the early 20th century, the young poet was overly concerned about the situation of American workers. Therefore, Sandburg began to work with the Wisconsin Social Democratic Party. He mainly distributed pamphlets and political literature.
It was while working at the party headquarters that the poet met his future wife, Lilian Steichen. Family life and new responsibilities forced C. Sandburg to change his career direction somewhat.
He returned to his native Illinois with his family and devoted himself to journalism. For some time, Sandburg was employed by the Chicago Daily News. There he mainly wrote about labor issues.
Until 1914, few people knew about the poet’s work. However, in the same year, several of his poems appeared in the national magazine Poetry. In 1916, Sandburg released the collection of Chicago Poems. The young poet was on the verge of international recognition. Two years later, another book of poems, Cornhuskers, was issued.
Poetry by Carl Sandburg
The artist’s talent was most fully manifested in writing poetry. The poet’s style was characterized by free verse. It was as close as possible to prose. On the surface, it seems that Sandburg sometimes crossed this fine line.
Having his poetry (Slabs of the Sunburnt West and Good Morning, America) published made him famous. He became known as the “singer” of the Midwest. Carl glorified ordinary workers, sympathized with the poor and lovingly described nature.
A biography of Abraham Lincoln that brought him world fame
Carl Sandburg’s publisher offered him to write a biography of A. Lincoln for young readers. It took the writer three years to research the life of the U.S. president and write his biography.
The biography of A. Lincoln was called the monumental work of the century. C. Sandburg initially released two tomes on the American president’s life. He later wrote four more multi-volume works.
In total, the author spent twenty years of his life creating a complete biography of A. Lincoln. Before preparing to begin writing the book, the writer read everything that had ever been published about the American president. It took C. Sandburg 30 years to collect and classify all the materials.
According to the author, in the books he sought to separate Lincoln’s personality as a man and as a myth. The famous historian Charles Byrd called the biography a noble monument of American literature.
For a century, the name of A. Lincoln has been associated with the concepts of democracy and freedom. His life resembles an interesting and fascinating novel. From an uneducated lumberjack, A. Lincoln became a prominent politician who always stood up for the interests of poor farmers and the black population thanks to the knowledge he gained.
The author tried to show how the personality of the U.S. president was formed, describing in detail the stages of A. Lincoln’s career. Sandburg paid special attention to the human qualities of the U.S. president and his relationship with his family and friends.
It should be added that the volume Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years, released in 1926, brought the author his first substantial monetary reward. C. Sandburg bought a new house and moved in. It was in this house that he spent years working on four extra volumes entitled Abraham Lincoln: The War Years.
The work written by C. Sandburg has been translated into almost all languages. It is rightly considered one of the most outstanding biographies of humankind. Based on historical documents and memoirs of Lincoln’s contemporaries, the author managed to show readers the image of a persistent and strong man with a somewhat rough humor. The multi-volume books also reveal the political struggle and military events of the time.
Features of Sandburg’s poetry
In the 20th century, the genre of free verse poetry gained popularity. Many poets of that time wrote their works in free verse. But C. Sandburg was the most recognized among the poets who supported the free verse movement.
Each new poem by the poet was regarded as a significant poetic event. C. Sandburg attracted large audiences at his lectures and was rightfully viewed as the greatest poet in America.
The main theme of most of the poet’s poems was unshakable faith in people. Sandburg paid great attention to the struggle for survival. It became especially acute in the mid-20th century. The poet perceived the world around him as it is.
The most popular collections of C. Sandburg’s poetry are Home Front Memo, Complete Poems and The Chicago Race Riots. The author received the Pulitzer Prize for them. The poet’s last books were Always the Young Strangers, an autobiographical story about the exciting years of his life before college, and Honey and Salt, a collection of poems from the last years of Sandburg’s life.
The great American poet died in his home surrounded by his children and grandchildren on July 22, 1967. C. Sandburg’s grave is in the town of Galesburg.