Carl August Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American poet, biographer, journalist, and editor. He won three Pulitzer Prizes : two for his poetry and one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln . During his lifetime, Sandburg was widely regarded as "a major figure in contemporary literature", especially for volumes of his collected verse, including Chicago Poems (1916), Cornhuskers (1918), and Smoke and Steel (1920). He enjoyed "unrivaled appeal as a poet in his day, perhaps because the breadth of his experiences connected him with so many strands of American life". When he died in 1967, President Lyndon B. Johnson observed that "Carl Sandburg was more than the voice of America, more than the poet of its strength and genius. He was America."
56-512: Galesburg is the name of some places in the United States of America: Galesburg, Illinois , the largest city in the US named Galesburg Galesburg, Iowa Galesburg, Kansas Galesburg, Michigan Galesburg, Jasper County, Missouri Galesburg, Putnam County, Missouri Galesburg, North Dakota [REDACTED] Topics referred to by
112-489: A "landmark", saw it "almost as soon as it came out." The composer Elie Siegmeister took it to Paris with him in 1927, and he and his wife Hannah "were always singing these songs. That was home. That was where we belonged." Sandburg said he considered working on D. W. Griffith 's Intolerance (1916) but his first film work was when he signed on to work on the production of The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) in July 1960 for
168-816: A dramatic reading of the Gettysburg Address , followed by an address by Sandburg. Sandburg supported the Civil Rights Movement and was the first white man to be honored by the NAACP with their Silver Plaque Award as a "major prophet of civil rights in our time." Sandburg died of natural causes in 1967 and his body was cremated. The ashes were interred under "Remembrance Rock", a granite boulder located behind his birth house in Galesburg. Much of Carl Sandburg's poetry, such as " Chicago ", focused on Chicago, Illinois , where he spent time as
224-774: A farm laborer on the wheat plains of Kansas . After an interval spent at Lombard College in Galesburg, he became a hotel servant in Denver , then a coal-heaver in Omaha. He began his writing career as a journalist for the Chicago Daily News . Later, he wrote poetry, history, biographies, novels, children's literature, and film reviews. Sandburg also collected and edited books of ballads and folklore. He spent most of his life in Illinois , Wisconsin , and Michigan before moving to North Carolina . Sandburg volunteered to join
280-514: A large hump yard 1.9 miles (3.1 km) south of town. Galesburg is served by Interstate 74 , which runs north to Moline in the Quad Cities region, and southeast to Peoria and beyond. The Chicago–Kansas City Expressway , also known as Illinois Route 110 , runs through Galesburg. To the southwest it passes through Macomb , the home of Western Illinois University , and toward Quincy , before crossing into Missouri . Galesburg served
336-507: A mere biography, a view also mirrored by other reviewers. Sandburg's 1927 anthology the American Songbag enjoyed enormous popularity, going through many editions; and Sandburg himself was perhaps the first American urban folk singer, accompanying himself on solo guitar at lectures and poetry recitals, and in recordings, long before the first or the second folk revival movements (of the 1940s and 1960s, respectively). According to
392-582: A mix of local, regional and national news. WGIL-AM, WAAG, WLSR-FM and WKAY-FM are all owned by Galesburg Broadcasting while Prairie Radio Communications owns WAIK-AM. KZZ66 provides Weather Information for NOAA Weather Radio in the Galesburg area. The Galesburg Register-Mail is the result of the merger of the Galesburg Republican-Register and the Galesburg Daily Mail in 1927. The two papers trace their roots back to
448-584: A much smaller station in 1983. The yard is still used by the BNSF Railway . In the late 19th century, when the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway connected its service through to Chicago, it also laid track through Galesburg and built its own railroad depot . The depot remained in operation until the construction of the Cameron Connector southwest of town enabled Amtrak to reroute
504-670: A newspaper, and also joined the Wisconsin Social Democratic Party, the name by which the Socialist Party of America was known in the state. Sandburg served as a secretary to Emil Seidel , socialist mayor of Milwaukee from 1910 to 1912. Carl Sandburg later remarked that Milwaukee was where he got his bearings and that the rest of his life had been "the unrolling of a scene that started up in Wisconsin". Sandburg met Lilian Steichen (1883–1977) at
560-639: A one-volume edition in 1954 prepared by Sandburg. Sandburg's Lincoln scholarship had an enormous impact on the popular view of Lincoln. The books were adapted by Robert E. Sherwood for his Pulitzer Prize-winning play, Abe Lincoln in Illinois (1938) and David Wolper 's six-part dramatization for television, Sandburg's Lincoln (1974). He recorded excerpts from the biography and some of Lincoln's speeches for Caedmon Records in New York City in May 1957. He
616-697: A prophetic voice. A visiting philanthropist, Joel Spingarn , who was also an official of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People , read Sandburg's columns with interest and asked to publish them, as The Chicago Race Riots, July, 1919 . Sandburg's popular multivolume biography Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years , 2 vols. (1926) and Abraham Lincoln: The War Years , 4 vols. (1939) are collectively "the best-selling, most widely read, and most influential book[s] about Lincoln." The books have been through many editions, including
SECTION 10
#1732773144151672-658: A reporter for the Chicago Daily News and The Day Book . His most famous description of the city is as "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." Sandburg earned Pulitzer Prizes for his collection The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg , Corn Huskers , and for his biography of Abraham Lincoln ( Abraham Lincoln: The War Years ). Sandburg
728-511: A second Poetry Pulitzer in 1951 for Complete Poems . In 1945, he moved to Connemara , a 246-acre (100 ha) rural estate in Flat Rock, North Carolina . Here, he produced a little over a third of his total published work and lived with his wife, daughters, and two grandchildren. On February 12, 1959, in commemorations of the 150th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln 's birth, Congress met in joint session to hear actor Fredric March give
784-546: A third leg initially terminating across the Mississippi River from Burlington, Iowa , eventually connecting to it via bridge and thence onward to the Western frontier. The Chicago, Burlington and Quincy Railroad (CB&Q) sited major rail sorting yards here, including the first to use hump sorting . The CB&Q also built a major depot on South Seminary Street that was controversially torn down and replaced by
840-489: A total area of 17.928 square miles (46.43 km ), of which 17.75 square miles (45.97 km ) (or 99.01%) are land and 0.178 square miles (0.46 km ) (or 0.99%) are water. As of the census of 2000, there were 33,706 people, 13,237 households, and 7,902 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,994.9 inhabitants per square mile (770.2/km ). There were 14,133 housing units at an average density of 836.5 per square mile (323.0/km ). The racial makeup of
896-469: A two-volume biography, in 1926, The American Songbag (1927), and a book of poems called Good Morning, America (1928) in Elmhurst. The Sandburg house at 331 South York Street in Elmhurst was demolished and the site is now a parking lot. The family moved to Michigan in 1930. Sandburg won the 1940 Pulitzer Prize for History for the four-volume The War Years , the sequel to his Abraham Lincoln , and
952-684: A year, receiving an "in creative association with Carl Sandburg" credit on the film. Carl Sandburg's boyhood home in Galesburg is now operated by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency as the Carl Sandburg State Historic Site . The site contains the cottage Sandburg was born in, a modern visitor center, and small garden with a large stone called Remembrance Rock, under which his and his wife's ashes are buried. Sandburg's home of 22 years in Flat Rock, Henderson County, North Carolina ,
1008-541: Is a weekly newspaper established in May 2016. It is owned by Limestone Publishing. Galesburg is part of the Quad Cities television market. Carl Sandburg Carl Sandburg was born in a three-room cottage at 313 East Third Street in Galesburg, Illinois , to Clara Mathilda (née Anderson) and August Sandberg, both of Swedish ancestry. He adopted the nickname "Charles" or "Charlie" in elementary school at about
1064-520: Is also remembered by generations of children for his Rootabaga Stories and Rootabaga Pigeons , a series of whimsical, sometimes melancholy stories he originally created for his own daughters. The Rootabaga Stories were born of Sandburg's desire for "American fairy tales" to match American childhood. He felt that the European stories involving royalty and knights were inappropriate, and so populated his stories with skyscrapers, trains, corn fairies and
1120-632: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Galesburg, Illinois Galesburg is a city in Knox County, Illinois , United States. The city is 45 miles (72 km) northwest of Peoria . At the 2010 census , its population was 32,195. It is the county seat of Knox County and the principal city of the Galesburg Micropolitan Statistical Area , which includes all of Knox and Warren counties. Galesburg
1176-548: Is home to Knox College , a private four-year liberal arts college, and Carl Sandburg College , a two-year community college. A 496-acre (201 ha) section of the city is listed on the National Register of Historic Places as the Galesburg Historic District . Galesburg was founded by George Washington Gale , a Presbyterian minister from New York state who had formulated the concept of
SECTION 20
#17327731441511232-574: Is maintained by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency as the Carl Sandburg State Historic Site . It includes the cottage he was born in, a modern museum, the rock under which he and his wife Lilian are buried, and a performance venue. Throughout much of its history, Galesburg has been inextricably tied to the railroad industry. Local businessmen were major backers of the first railroad to connect Illinois's then two biggest cities— Chicago and Quincy —as well as
1288-785: Is preserved by the National Park Service as the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site . Carl Sandburg College is located in Sandburg's birthplace of Galesburg, Illinois . During the Spanish-American War, Sandburg was stationed at Camp Alger in Fairfax County, Virginia and so the county has both a Sandburg Road, near the spot where the camp was located, and a Carl Sandburg Middle School. On January 6, 1978,
1344-469: Is served by U.S. Routes 34 and 150 . US 34 connects Galesburg to Burlington, Iowa , and Chicago . It is a freeway through its entire run in Galesburg and west to Monmouth . It connects to Galesburg through three interchanges at West Main Street, North Henderson Street, and North Seminary Street, along with an additional interchange at Interstate 74. US 150 runs through the heart of Galesburg. It enters
1400-744: The Southwest Chief via the Mendota Subdivision and join the California Zephyr and Illinois Zephyr at the Burlington Northern depot. A series of mergers eventually united both lines under the ownership of BNSF Railway , carrying an average of seven freight trains per hour between them. With the closure of the Maytag plant in 2004, BNSF is once again the largest private employer in Galesburg. Galesburg
1456-492: The National Railroad Hall of Fame . Efforts are underway to raise funds for the $ 30 million (~$ 43.6 million in 2023) project, which got a major boost in 2006, when Congress passed a bill to charter the establishment. It is hoped that the museum will bring tourism and a financial boost to the community. Construction of the museum began in 2019. Galesburg has several radio stations and newspapers delivering
1512-813: The Stearman Fly in. Also in September are the Great Cardboard Boat Regatta and the Annual Rubber Duck Race, at Lake Storey. On the third weekend of every August, a Civil War and pre-1840s rendezvous is held at Lake Storey Park. Amtrak , the national passenger rail system, provides service from Chicago on four trains daily. It operates the California Zephyr , Carl Sandburg , Illinois Zephyr , and Southwest Chief daily from Chicago Union Station to Galesburg station and points west. The Southwest Chief and
1568-662: The University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee , carries a plaque commemorating Sandburg's roles as an organizer for the Social Democratic Party and as personal secretary to Emil Seidel , Milwaukee's first Socialist mayor. Carl Sandburg Library opened in Livonia, Michigan , in 1961. The name was recommended by the Library Commission as an example of an American author representing the best of literature of
1624-507: The manual labor college and first implemented it at the Oneida Institute near Utica , New York. In 1836 Gale publicized a subscription- and land purchase-based plan to found manual labor colleges in the Mississippi River valley. Land was purchased for this purpose in Knox County and in 1837 the first subscribers to the college-founding plan arrived and began to settle what would become Galesburg. Galesburg, populated from
1680-549: The "Five Marvelous Pretzels". In 1919, Sandburg was assigned by his editor at the Daily News to do a series of reports on the working classes and tensions among whites and African Americans . The impetus for these reports were race riots that had broken out in other American cities. Ultimately, major riots broke out in Chicago too, but much of Sandburg's writing on the issues before the riots caused him to be seen as having
1736-563: The 100th anniversary of his birth, the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp honoring Sandburg. The spare design consists of a profile originally drawn by his friend William A. Smith in 1952, along with Sandburg's own distinctive autograph. The Rare Book & Manuscript Library (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) (RBML) houses the Carl Sandburg Papers. The bulk of
Galesburg - Misplaced Pages Continue
1792-503: The Galesburg Railroad Museum was founded and opened during Railroad Days. For a while, the city and the railroad worked together on the celebrations. In 2002, the railroad backed out of the festival and there were no yard tours. In 2003 the city worked with local groups to revamp the festival and the Galesburg Railroad Museum resumed bus tours of the yards. The Galesburg Railroad Museum has continued to provide tours of
1848-408: The Galesburg team in 1912, when his wife, two children, his parents and two sisters were killed in a tornado. Galesburg teams played at Illinois Field (1908–1912, 1914), Lombard College Field (1908–1912, 1914) and Willard Field at Knox College (1890, 1895). Lombard College was in Galesburg until 1930, and is now the site of Lombard Middle School. The Carr Mansion at 560 North Prairie Street
1904-853: The Midwest. Carl Sandburg had taught at the University of Michigan for a time. Galesburg opened Sandburg Mall in 1975, named in honor of Sandburg. The Chicago Public Library installed the Carl Sandburg Award, annually awarded for contributions to literature. Amtrak added the Carl Sandburg train in 2006 to supplement the Illinois Zephyr on the Chicago – Quincy route. Carl Sandburg Middle School in Alexandria, Virginia, part of Fairfax County Public Schools ,
1960-804: The Milwaukee Social Democratic Party office in 1907, and they married the next year in Milwaukee. Lilian's brother was the photographer Edward Steichen . Sandburg with his wife, whom he called Paula, raised three daughters. Their first daughter, Margaret, was born in 1911. The Sandburgs moved to Harbert, Michigan , and then to suburban Chicago , Illinois in 1912 after he was offered a job by a Chicago newspaper. They lived in Evanston , Illinois, before settling at 331 South York Street in Elmhurst , Illinois, from 1919 to 1930. During
2016-406: The age of 18 living with them, 43.6% were married couples living together, 12.4% had a female householder with no husband present, and 40.3% were non-families. 34.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 16.1% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.24 and the average family size was 2.87. The population was spread out, with 21.1% under
2072-434: The age of 18, 11.8% from 18 to 24, 27.0% from 25 to 44, 22.0% from 45 to 64, and 18.1% 65 or older. The median age was 38. For every 100 females, there were 100.3 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 98.1 males. The median income for a household in the city was $ 31,987, and the median income for a family was $ 41,796. Males had a median income of $ 31,698 versus $ 21,388 for females. The per capita income for
2128-496: The city as Grand Avenue from the southeast, runs through downtown as Main Street, and exits the city as North Henderson Street. Galesburg is additionally served by Illinois State Route 97 , Route 41 , Route 164 , and Knox County highways 1, 7, 9, 10, 25, 30, 31, and 40. Galesburg Municipal Airport provides general aviation access, while Quad City International Airport and General Wayne A. Downing Peoria International Airport provide commercial flights. Galesburg will be home to
2184-556: The city was $ 17,214. About 10.7% of families and 14.7% of the population were below the poverty line , including 23.4% of those under age 18 and 6.3% of those age 65 or over. Galesburg is the home of the Railroad Days festival, held on the fourth weekend of June. The festival began in 1977 as an open house to the public from the then Burlington Northern. Burlington Northern gave train car tours of their yards. The city started having street fairs to draw more people to town. In 1981,
2240-441: The city was 84.23% White , 10.20% African American , 0.22% Native American , 1.03% Asian , 0.02% Pacific Islander , 2.46% from other races , and 1.84% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 5.01% of the population. 17.4% were of German , 12.6% American , 11.5% Irish , 11.3% Swedish and 9.1% English ancestry according to Census 2000 . There were 13,237 households, of which 26.3% had children under
2296-725: The collection was purchased directly from Carl Sandburg and his family. In total, the RBML owns over 600 cubic feet of Sandburg's papers, including photographs, correspondence, and manuscripts. In 2011, Sandburg was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame. Carl Sandburg Village was a 1960s urban renewal project in the Near North Side, Chicago . Financed by the city, it is located between Clark and LaSalle St. between Division Street and North Ave. Solomon & Cordwell, architects. In 1979, Carl Sandburg Village
Galesburg - Misplaced Pages Continue
2352-521: The ever-lengthening shelf of really good books about Lincoln." Historian Milo Milton Quaife criticized Sandburg for not documenting his sources and questioned the accuracy of The Prairie Years , noting they contain a number of factual errors. Others have complained The Prairie Years and The War Years contain too much material that is neither biography nor history, saying the books are instead "sentimental poeticizing" by Sandburg. Sandburg himself may have viewed his works more as an American epic than as
2408-670: The first by abolitionists, was home to one of the first anti-slavery societies in Illinois and was a stop on the Underground Railroad . The city was the site of the fifth Lincoln–Douglas debate . held on October 7, 1858. Galesburg also was the home of Mary Ann "Mother" Bickerdyke , who provided hospital care for Union soldiers during the Civil War . In later years, Galesburg became the birthplace of poet Carl Sandburg , artist Dorothea Tanning , and former Major League Baseball star Jim Sundberg . Sandburg's boyhood home
2464-415: The four-volume The War Years . But Sandburg's works on Lincoln also received substantial criticism. William E. Barton , who had published a Lincoln biography in 1925, wrote that Sandburg's book "is not history, is not even biography" because of its lack of original research and uncritical use of evidence, but Barton nevertheless thought it was "real literature and a delightful and important contribution to
2520-451: The mid-19th century. A daily, it is the main newspaper of the city, and was owned by Copley Press until it was sold to Gate House Media in April 2007. The Zephyr was started in 1989, was published on Thursdays and was the only locally owned newspaper until its final edition December 9, 2010. The New Zephyr began publication in early 2013. It is published every Friday. The Knoxville Bulletin
2576-580: The military during the Spanish–American War and was stationed in Puerto Rico with the 6th Illinois Infantry, disembarking at Guánica , Puerto Rico , on July 25, 1898. Sandburg was never actually called to battle. He attended West Point for just two weeks before failing a mathematics and grammar exam. Sandburg returned to Galesburg and entered Lombard College but left without a degree in 1903. He then moved to Milwaukee, Wisconsin , to work for
2632-564: The musicologist Judith Tick: As a populist poet, Sandburg bestowed a powerful dignity on what the '20s called the "American scene" in a book he called a "ragbag of stripes and streaks of color from nearly all ends of the earth ... rich with the diversity of the United States." Reviewed widely in journals ranging from the New Masses to Modern Music , the American Songbag influenced a number of musicians. Pete Seeger, who calls it
2688-427: The same term This disambiguation page lists articles about distinct geographical locations with the same name. If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Galesburg&oldid=1031952953 " Category : Place name disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
2744-460: The same time he and his two oldest siblings changed the spelling of their last name to "Sandburg". At the age of thirteen, he left school and began driving a milk wagon. From the age of about fourteen until he was seventeen or eighteen, he worked as a porter at the Union Hotel barbershop in Galesburg. After that, he was on the milk route again for 18 months. He then became a bricklayer and
2800-500: The state-supported Carl Sandburg and Illinois Zephyr take passengers to Chicago or points west, while the California Zephyr discharges passengers only on its eastbound run since the other trains provide ample service. Galesburg Transit provides bus service in the city. There are four routes: Gold Express Loop, Green Central Loop, Red West Loop, and Blue East Loop. BNSF provides rail freight to Galesburg and operates
2856-526: The time, Sandburg wrote Chicago Poems (1916), Cornhuskers (1918), and Smoke and Steel (1920). In 1919 Sandburg won a Pulitzer Prize "made possible by a special grant from The Poetry Society " for his collection Cornhuskers . Sandburg also wrote three children's books in Elmhurst: Rootabaga Stories , in 1922, followed by Rootabaga Pigeons (1923), and Potato Face (1930). Sandburg also wrote Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years ,
SECTION 50
#17327731441512912-555: The yards since then. In 2010, the Galesburg Railroad Museum started offering a VIP tour of the yards, in which a select group of riders are allowed in the Hump Towers and Diesel Shop and see the BNSF at work. During the festival, one of the largest model railroad train shows and layouts in the U.S. Midwest happens during Railroad Days at the new Galesburg High School Fieldhouse. During Labor Day weekend in September, Galesburg hosts
2968-495: 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 . Some historians suggest more Americans learned about Lincoln from Sandburg than from any other source. The books garnered critical praise and attention for Sandburg, including the 1940 Pulitzer Prize for History for
3024-485: Was converted to condominium ownership. Numerous schools are named for Sandburg throughout the United States, and he was present at some of these schools' dedications. (Some years after attending the 1954 dedication of Carl Sandburg High School in Orland Park, Illinois , Sandburg returned for an unannounced visit; the school's principal at first mistook him for a hobo .) Sandburg Halls , a student residence hall at
3080-744: Was home to the pioneering brass era automobile company Western , which produced the Gale, named for the town. Galesburg was home to minor league baseball from 1890 to 1914. The Galesburg Pavers was the last name of the minor league teams based in Galesburg. Galesburg teams played as members of the Eastern Iowa League (1895), Central Interstate League (1890), Illinois-Iowa League (1890), Illinois-Missouri League (1908–1909) and Central Association (1910–1912, 1914). Baseball Hall of Fame members Grover Cleveland Alexander (1909) and Sam Rice (1912) played for Galesburg. Rice had to leave
3136-409: Was the site of a presidential cabinet meeting held in 1899 by U.S. President William McKinley and U.S. Secretary of State John Hay . Galesburg is in western Knox County. Interstate 74 runs through the east side of the city, leading southeast 47 miles (76 km) to Peoria and north 36 miles (58 km) to Interstate 80 near the Quad Cities area. According to the 2010 census, Galesburg has
#150849