About Carl Sandburg
Carl August Sandburg, born January 6, 1878, in Galesburg, Illinois, was a poet, writer, and editor. His parents, August and Clara, were of Swedish ancestry. Known as “Charlie,” during his younger years, Sandburg left school at age 13 and got a job driving a milk wagon. He went on to work at a number of jobs, including a porter at a hotel barbershop, a bricklayer, a farm laborer in Kansas, and a coal-heaver in Omaha.
He began his writing career as a journalist for the Chicago Daily News, and also edited books of ballads and folklore. Sandburg volunteered to serve during the Spanish-American War and was stationed in Puerto Rico. He later attended college, but didn’t earn a degree. After leaving college, he served as secretary to the mayor of Milwaukee for a while.
In 1908, he married Lilian (Paula) Steichen. They had three daughters. The couple lived in a Chicago suburb for many years until they moved to a 246-acre estate in North Carolina in 1945, where he penned nearly a third of his published works.
Sandburg and his wife were active members of the Social Democratic Party, and he supported the Civil Rights Movement. He has the distinction of being the first white person to be honored by the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People) with the Silver Plaque Award.
On the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln’s birth (February 12, 1959), Sandburg was invited to a joint session of Congress to hear a dramatic reading of the Gettysburg Address, followed by an address by Sandburg himself.
Sandburg died of natural causes on July 22, 1967, at the age of 89.
About Sandburg’s poetry and other works
Although best known as a poet, Carl Sandburg distinguished himself as a writer in five fields: poetry, history, fiction, biography, and music. His plain-spoken, free verse style appealed to the public.
Sandburg’s collection, Chicago Poems (published in 1916), established him as a major figure in contemporary literature. The group of poems was followed up with two other volumes, Cornhuskers (1918) and Smoke and Steel (1920). He was awarded the Pulitzer Prize three times:
- 1919 – Special Citations and Awards (for Cornhuskers)
- 1940 – History (for his biography titled Abraham Lincoln: The War Years)
- 1951 – Poetry (for The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg)
President Lyndon B. Johnson said, “Carl Sandburg was more than the voice of America, more than the poet of its strength and genius. He was America.”
How did Carl Sandburg get the idea to write his collection of Chicago Poems?
Sandburg’s poetry was primarily inspired by his varied life experiences that connected him with American life.
He spent time in Chicago as a reporter for the Chicago Daily News, which gave him great insight to the city. His home, where he wrote the poem “Chicago,” is now a city landmark.
“Chicago” (from the collection titled Chicago Poems – Public Domain)
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:
They tell me you are wicked and I believe them, for I have seen your painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys.
And they tell me you are crooked and I answer: yes, it is true I have seen the gunman kill and go free to kill again.
And they tell me you are brutal and my reply is: On the faces of women and children I have seen the marks of wanton hunger.
And having answered so I turn once more to those who sneer at this my city, and I give them back the sneer and say to them:
Come and show me another city with lifted head singing so proud to be alive and coarse and strong and cunning.
Flinging magnetic curses amid the toil of piling job on job, here is a tall bold slugger set vivid against the little soft cities;
Fierce as a dog with tongue lapping for action, cunning as a savage pitted against the wilderness,
Bareheaded,
Shoveling,
Wrecking,
Planning,
Building, breaking, rebuilding,
Under the smoke, dust all over his mouth, laughing with white teeth,
Under the terrible burden of destiny laughing as a young man laughs,
Laughing even as an ignorant fighter laughs who has never lost a battle,
Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse, and under his ribs the heart of the people,
Laughing!
Laughing the stormy, husky, brawling laughter of Youth, half-naked, sweating, proud to be Hog Butcher, Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat, Player with Railroads and Freight Handler to the Nation.
Quotes by Carl Sandburg:
- Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you.
- Nothing happens unless first we dream.
- A baby is God’s opinion that the world should go on.
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The fog comes on little cat feet. It sits looking over harbor and city on silent haunches and then moves on.
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I’m an idealist. I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m on my way.
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Poetry is an echo, asking a shadow to dance.
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Life is like an onion. You peel it off one layer at a time, and sometimes you weep.