The Midwest Poet, Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg was born in Galesburg, Illinois, on January 6, 1878. He would be 138 years old this year. He was the second born of seven children. His family addressed him by Charlie. His parents, August and Clara Johnson, had emigrated to America from the north of Sweden(“Carl Sandburg” Poets). His father, a blacksmith helper, worked for the nearby railroad. After encountering several August Johnsons in his job for the railroad, the Sandburg’s father renamed the family(“Carl Sandburg” Poets). His father bought a cottage in 1873. A few years later they bought a larger house and sold the cottage. The Sandburg’s were very poor; Carl left school at the age of thirteen to work odd jobs, from laying bricks to dishwashing, to help support his family. At seventeen, he traveled west to Kansas as a hobo.His experiences working and traveling greatly influenced his writing and political views. As a hobo he learned a number of folk songs, which he later performed at…show more content… While Sandburg attended Lombard for the full four years, he never acquired a diploma (later, he would receive honorary degrees from Lombard, Knox College, and Northwestern University). The same Knox college that is still in service today. After college, Sandburg moved to Milwaukee, where he worked as an advertising writer and a newspaper reporter. While there, he met and married Lillian Steichen (whom he called Paula), sister of the photographer Edward Steichen.(“Carl Sandburg” Poets). A Socialist sympathizer at that point in his life, Sandburg then worked for the Social-Democrat Party in Wisconsin and later acted as secretary to the first Socialist mayor of Milwaukee from 1910 to 1912(“Carl Sandburg”
