By Ryan Watson
Carl Sandberg was born on January 6, 1878 in Galesburg, IL. His parents emigrated from north Sweden, and were very poor. Sandburg was forced to drop out of school when he was thirteen to support his family. Later, he served in the Spanish-American war in Puerto Rico, and enrolled in Lombard College, in Galesburg, IL. He attracted the attention of Professor Phillip Green Wright and the professor helped Sandburg publish his first set of poems, called In Reckless Ecstasy. Sandburg was at the college for four years, but left before graduating. He moved to Milwaukee, and served as secretary to the mayor for two years. Then, he moved to Chicago, and wrote his Chicago Poems, the most famous one called Chicago. Then, he wrote his set of poems called Cornhuskers, which exposed the realities of agrarian life, and later the set Smoke and Steel, which was an attempt to find beauty in modernization. In 1922, he wrote Slabs of the Sunburnt West, and then, in 1927, started writing historical volumes about Abraham Lincoln, starting with Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years. This set of two volumes was about Abe Lincoln growing up. and in 1928 he wrote Good Morning, America. In Good Morning, America, he used proverbs and idioms to delve into mythology and history. Then, he wrote about Lincoln's wife in Mary Lincoln: Wife and Widow. After the Great Depression, he wrote a volume telling about the power of the people to advance and improve, called The People, Yes. Then, he wrote the finishing three volumes of his Abe Lincoln biography, a set called Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, from Lincoln's election to his assassination. Then, Sandburg wrote Harvest Poems, and Honey and Salt. These were his last two volumes of poetry, and he died on July 22, 1967 in Flat Rock, NC.
In Reckless Ecstasy (poetry) 1904
Chicago Poems (poetry) 1916
Cornhuskers (poetry) 1918
The Chicago Race Riots, July 1919 (poetry) 1919
Smoke and Steel (poetry) 1920
Slabs of the Sunburnt West (poetry) 1922
Rootabaga Stories (children's) 1922
Rootabaga Pigeons (children's) 1923
Selected Poems (poetry) 1926
Songs of America (poetry) 1927
Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years (biographical prose) 1927
The American Songbag (prose) 1927
Abe Lincoln Grows Up (biographical prose), 1928
Good Morning, America (poetry) 1928
Steichen the Photographer (prose) 1929
Rootabaga Country (children's) 1929
Potato Face (children's) 1930
Mary Lincoln: Wife and Widow (biographical prose) 1932
The People, Yes (poetry) 1936
Abraham Lincoln: The War Years (biographical prose) 1939
Remembrance Rock (prose) 1948
The New American Songbag (prose) 1950
Complete Poems (poetry) 1950
Always the Young Strangers (autobiography) 1952
Harvest Poems (poetry) 1960
Wind Song (poetry) 1960
Honey and Salt (poetry) 1963