Carl Sandburg

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Carl Sandburg (1955)
Carl Sandburg

Carl August Sandburg (born January 6, 1878 in Galesburg , Illinois - † July 22, 1967 in Flat Rock , North Carolina ) was an American poet , novelist , journalist and historian , known for his poems and his biography of Abraham Lincoln , for which he won the Pulitzer Prize .

The line from his poem The People, Yes, "Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come" (translated as: "Imagine, there is war and nobody goes") became particularly well known in German-speaking countries .

life and work

Sandburg was the son of parents of Swedish origin; his father was a blacksmith and railroad worker. He grew up in Illinois in the Midwest. Sandburg left school at the age of 13 and got by in a wide variety of jobs, including as a painter. He was a volunteer in the Spanish-American War and participated in the landing at Guánica , Puerto Rico on July 25, 1898, but was not involved in combat. After a short flying visit (two weeks - he said he failed the entrance tests in grammar and arithmetic) in West Point , he attended Lombard College in his hometown of Galesburg, but left in 1903 without a degree. In Milwaukee , he joined the Social Democratic Party and became secretary to Social Democratic Mayor Emil Seidel (then the first "socialist" mayor in the United States). He also met Lilian Steichen (known as Paula) while working for the Social Democrats. She was a sister of the photographer Edward Steichen , whose biography he wrote in 1929. Carl Sandburg and Lilian Steichen married in 1908; the marriage has three daughters. During the First World War he was a war correspondent (portrayed in “Cornhuskers” 1918). Sandburg lived in Chicago and the surrounding area from 1912 to 1928 , where he was a reporter for the Chicago Daily News (from 1919) and the Day Book. As early as 1904 he published his first volumes of poetry (as Charles Sandburg, "In Reckless Ecstasy"). His poetry book "Chicago" from 1916 became famous, in which he characterized the city as follows:

"Hog Butcher for the World
Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat
Player with Railroads and the Nation's Freight Handler
Stormy, Husky, Brawling, and City of the Big Shoulders "

As a poet, he was one of the most important exponents of the “Chicago Renaissance” of the early 20th century. He often used the language of the working class of the Midwest ("The Chicago Race Riots" 1919, "The People, Yes" 1936); he also collected American folk songs ("The American Songbag" 1927, "New American Songbag" 1950). He also received a Pulitzer Prize for his collected poems. His children's stories (originally for his own daughters) "Rootabaga Stories" from 1920 and "Rootabaga Pigeons" from 1923, in which he used the background of the American Midwest ("Rootabaga Country") instead of knights and fairies as in European fairy tales, were also known . Also in Chicago he began his famous Lincoln biography: six volumes from "Lincoln - The Prairie Years" 1926 to "Lincoln - the war years" 1939 as well as a Lincoln biography for children "Abe Lincoln grows up" in 1928 and a biography of Lincoln's wife Mary Lincoln 1932. In 1940 he received the Pulitzer Prize for History for "Lincoln - the war years" . In 1959 he received a Grammy for his recording of Aaron Copland's "Lincoln Portrait" with the New York Philharmonic. Since 1933 he was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters .

His only novel "Remembrance Rock" was published in 1948. He also wrote autobiographical works ("Always the young strangers" 1953, "Ever the winds of change" 1983).

Sandburg worked on screenplays for film and television five times. He wrote his first screenplay for the documentary Bomber in 1941 . Carl Sandburg wrote the foreword for the catalog of the exhibition The Family of Man , curated by his brother-in-law Edward Steichen.

On August 8, 1962, Lee Strasberg read a funeral speech written by Sandburg at the coffin of Marilyn Monroe .

In 1928 he moved to Harbert , Michigan, where he was active again for the socialist movement in the economic crisis of the 1930s. From 1945 he lived in Flat Rock (North Carolina) on his estate "Connemara", which is now administered by the National Park Service. While Sandburg could write there in peace, his wife took over the farm.

Quotes

  • “Imagine it's war and nobody goes there.” - (frequent German translation of his line of poetry “Sometime they'll give a war and nobody will come”), occasionally wrongly attributed to Bertolt Brecht . see list of winged words

Works (selection)

  • Abraham Lincoln: The Prairie Years (1926), Abraham Lincoln: The War Years (1939)
  • Always Young Strangers (1953)
  • The American Songbag (1927)
  • Chicago Poems (1916)
  • Cornhuskers (1918)
  • Early Moon (1930)
  • In Reckless Ecstasy (1904)
  • The People, Yes (1936)
  • Selected Poems (1926)
  • Smoke and Steel (1920)
  • Storm over the Land (1942)
  • Rootabaga Pigeons, 1923 (children's book)
  • Rootabaga Stories, 1922 (children's book)
  • The people, yes, 1936 (poems)
  • The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle and Who Was In It, 1950 (children's book)

German editions

  • Abraham Lincoln: The life of an immortal , Hamburg, Vienna: Zsolnay 1958, Heyne paperback 1984
  • Das Volk, jawohl , Aufbau Verlag 1964 (The people, yes)
  • The wedding of the rag doll and the broom handle and who was there , Diogenes 2013 (pictures Harriet Pincus, English original The wedding procession of the rag doll and the broom handle and who was in it )
  • Good morning America. Selected poems , Herbig 1948
  • Two hats for Schnu Fu: Tales from Rutabagaland , Recklinghausen: Bitter 1974 (Rootabaga stories)

literature

  • Gay W. Allen: Carl Sandburg. Univ., Minneapolis, Minn. 1972
  • North Callahan: Carl Sandburg. Univ. Pr., University Park 1987
  • Richard Crowder: Carl Sandburg. Twayne Publ., Boston, Mass. 1964
  • Carl August Sandburg , in: Internationales Biographisches Archiv 41/1967 of October 2, 1967, in the Munzinger Archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Members: Carl Sandburg. American Academy of Arts and Letters, accessed April 24, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Jerry Mason (Ed.): The Family of Man. Prologue by Carl Sandburg. Museum of Modern Art, New York 1955, (p. 2f.)
  3. ↑ Article in the time

Web links

Commons : Carl Sandburg  - Collection of images, videos and audio files
Wikiquote: Carl Sandburg  - Quotes
personal data
SURNAME Sandcastle, Carl
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Sandburg, Carl August (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American lyric poet, biographer, and historian
DATE OF BIRTH January 6, 1878
PLACE OF BIRTH Galesburg , Illinois
DATE OF DEATH July 22, 1967
Place of death Flat Rock , North Carolina