Carl Sandurg Collection

An inventory of the collection at the University of Illinois at Chicago

Biographical Sketch

Carl August Sandburg was born on January 6, 1878 in Galesburg, Illinois to August and Clara Anderson, Swedish immigrants to the United States. Son of a blacksmith's helper and the second of seven children, Sandburg worked from an early age and left school before graduating from the eighth grade. After a decade of odd jobs and a stint as a hobo, Sandburg volunteered for military service during the Spanish-American War in 1898. He then studied at Lombard College (now Knox College) where he joined the Poor Writers' Club, an informal group of students interested in poetry. Sandburg was deeply influenced by Professor Phillip Green Wright, a socialist, but left college during his senior year. Prof. Wright published the first book of Sandburg's verse, In Reckless Ecstasy, in his basement press in 1904.

Working as a newspaperman in Milwaukee in 1902, Sandburg honed his writing skills and developed greater awareness of the plight of the city's working poor. He married Ellen Steichen in 1908, the sister of the photographer, Edward Steichen. Sandburg was active in the progressive politics of his era, as an organizer for the Wisconsin Democratic Party and secretary to Milwaukee's socialist mayor from 1910 to 1912. Publication of his poems in Poetry magazine in 1914 exposed Sandburg to a national audience. With the success of his book, Chicago Poems, in 1916, Carl Sandburg established an international reputation and a career as a professional writer. Sandburg wrote several biographical volumes about Abraham Lincoln receiving the Pulitzer Prize in 1940 for Abraham Lincoln: The War Years. He published his first novel, Remembrance Rock, in 1940. Sandburg and his wife spent their later years in Flat Rock, North Carolina with their prize-winning herd of goats. Sandburg shunned conventional style and wrote passionately about the beauty and virtue or ordinary people and ordinary things.

Scope and Contents

The Carl Sandburg Collection is divided into three series: Series I: Sequential Folders, Series II: Periodicals and Published Works, and Series III: Oversize Periodicals, Excerpts, and Clippings. Series I includes correspondence, memoranda, notes, clippings, published articles, books, book jackets, bulletins, photographs, poetry, pamphlets, brochures, broadsides, programs, stationary, song sheets, flyers, bibliographic materials, and one handkerchief. Some periodicals are also included in this series. This series reflects the original order and content of folders as created by William P. Schenk. Series II consists of periodicals, books, and excerpts from published works stored separately from the sequential folders upon acquisition of these materials. Series III consists of oversize periodicals, excerpts and clippings including fragile newspapers that have been separated from materials in Series II for preservation and more appropriate storage, as well as a map of Galesburg, Illinois, poetry, a brochure, and photograph. Most material in this collection regards Carl Sandburg, but William P. Schenk also collected material about Sandburg's relatives, notably his brother-in-law, Edward Steichen.

Detailed Description/Box and Folder Listing