Carl August Sandburg 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."
Remembrance Rock gravesite
Rootabaga Stories (book 1, 1922)
Sandburg rented a room and lived for three years in this house, where he wrote the poem "Chicago". It is now a Chicago landmark.
Sandburg on historical roots, displayed at Deaf Smith County Museum, Hereford, TX
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.
Main Street (US Hwy 150) in downtown Galesburg
A BNSF train passes through central Galesburg near the site of the former Santa Fe depot.
"Welcome to Galesburg" sign