Product Description
From humble beginnings in a small Midwestern town in 1878, Carl Sandburg grew to be an extraordinary man of letters. Sandburg was well loved for his poetry and biographies, but he was never an ivory tower intellectual, hidden away from the struggles and history of his country. Whether he was marching in Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War or campaigning for Franklin Delano Roosevelt during World War II, Sandburg lived life fully, and preferably at the center of the action. By the time he died in 1967, Sandburg had written many books of poetry, a novel, a six-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln, children s books, and many, many speeches. Through it all, and even when he was zestfully attacking his county s political or religious leadership, Sandburg s profound love for his country came through. He adored the United States, although he saw its complicated and violent history clearly, as perhaps no other leading writer has. The American people saw the truth and eloquence of his work and showered Sandburg with affection. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

strange
We love this book but it is a little odd. The pictures are truely strange but the words are enchanting. My 2 little boys think it's great!

One of the best children's stories ever....
In the late '60s and early '70s, my mother read this story to my sister and me - MANY times - from a collection of bedtime stories that had belonged to her younger sister (my aunt).We still talk about "chubbing our chubs" and having a "chocolate chin" in the regular course of family conversation.I was delighted to find that this, and other Carl Sandburg stories, are still in print.His clever use of language and image puts him in a rather elite group of writers. Sandburg helped me to develop an abiding love and respect for words and a feeling of expectant wonder every time I open a new book.

There are a few children's books that I recommend without qualification.Needless to say, this is one of them.(Others in this category include:Ogden Nash's "Animal Garden" and Lore Segal's "Tell Me a Mitzy" and "Tell Me a Trudy.")

If you have not read "The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle and Who Was in It," do it now!

My children's absolute favorite
Though I have always enjoyed Carl Sandburg's poetry, I had never encountered this book until my son discovered it at the library on his first library visit. We took it home, read it every night for 2 weeks and he didn't want to take it back. The day we returned it, we went to the book store and got our own copy. When my daughter came along, I ordered a copy from Amazon, as she also fell in love with the story.The Wedding Procession is a lovely go-to-sleep book, telling the story of the sweet Rag Doll who was loved by all, but who chose to marry the Broom Handle. We each have our favorite group from the procession. My son loves the musical soup eaters, my daughter adores the easy ticklers. And my favorites, after the clean ears, are of course the sleepyheads. Children will want you to read this to them nearly every night. And parents and caregivers will oblige happily because it is a quite, lovely, charming story that will march your children right along to bed in the Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle.

such happy memories
This was truly my favorite book as a child. I was surprised to find it available. Many happy hours were spent on my mother's
lap reading and looking at the unique pictures. I hope my Johnnie
loves it also!

Probably my favorite children's book
I don't even have kids and I'm ordering this book just to have around the house.Though I haven't read it in probably 25 years, I can still recite whole passages from it.I only wish it were still available in hardcover. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Carl Sandburg
Carl Sandburg was a very boring book, to me.It was a biography on a railroad man named Carl.This book started out with a chronology of Carl Sandburg's life.Carl was born in the 1860's and died in the 1960's, at the age of 93.After the chronology of Carl's life, the book resumes onto the beginning of Carl's life.He began as a cheap railroad man.Then, one day when he was about 25, he struck an oil well and became rich.Following, he paid for college and became a great college professor.He taught college until he retired at the age of 85.Eight years later, at the age of 93, Carl Sandburg died.I believe if this book was fictional with a little bit of adventure here and there, it would have been much better.Also, if it had som action at all, to me, the book would have been much better.Overall, I give the book Carl Sandburg, by Richard Crowder, 2 stars.

Quotes Galore
This person seems to be more interested with Sandburg's writing than with Sandburg.But he definitely has respect for Carl. ... Read more

Product Description
Illustrated thoughout with photographs, sketches, cartoons, letters and documents. This set contains the four-volume set of Lincoln's War Years and the two-volume set of the Prairie Years. Blue cloth with gilt lettering on the spines. Copyrights 1926 and 1939. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

A wonderful well-written love story and socialist primer.
We think of socialists in one way, Carl Sandburg was probably not it.Buthis letters to his soon-to-be wife, Lillian Steichen, are full of hisfabulous prose and whimsy.They met briefly in January, this book takes usfrom then until their marriage in June.Sweet and full of love, theirletters also tell the story of the socialist party in the early 1900's. ... Read more

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Book Description

Customer Reviews (2)

Rediscovering An Old Friend
I first read, "The People, Yes" in 1966, while I was still a high school student. I discovered then that reading and writing poetry was cool. More than anything I had ever read before that it spoke to me in sucha personal way, that poetry could be warm, sad, funny and powerful all atthe same time. While my friends talked about Kerouac, and Ginsberg, and ofcourse Catcher in the Rye, I read everything Carl Sandburg ever wrote. Iused my original copy to teach myhigh school students with until thecover fell off and the pages came apart. It has always held a special spoton my bookshelf, and now I have given this book to my daughter, and shecarries it with her everywhere with her own copy of "Always The YoungStrangers". She said she never knew poetry could be so powerful, yeteasy to understand. Until I gave her this book, she said she hated to readthe poetry they assign in school because "this is poetry. It has somuch to say, and I know he wants me to understand his words, and he doesn'thide behind archaic language, literary symbols or obscure references thatseem irrelevant." The Poetry of Carl Sanburg is timeless. I neverunderstood why his place in American Literature was not much higher. To mehe is the best American poet of the twentieth century, in a class byhimself. After thirty years and hundreds of readings, I still findsomething new every time.

An old friend I'd never met before
Oh, my! To think I never read this before.I knew of it, of course, fromquotes and snippets (my mother took me to see "The Family of Man" at the Museum of ModernArt in New York in the fifties).Why doesn't Sandburg rank higher in our artistic pantheon?Too left wing?Not pretentious enough?More like Woody Guthrie than like T. S. Eliot?Anyway, this is wonderful stuff, reads aloud wonderfully, funny, wise, and you'd better believe it has a message for the nineties."Another baby in Cuyahuga County, Ohio--why did she ask: 'Papa, what is the moon supposed to advertise?'""The public has a mind?Yes. And men can follow a method and a calculated procedure for drugging and debauching it?Yes.And the whirlwind comes later?Yes." A treasure.And fun to read. ... Read more

Book Description
Helga Sandburg is the youngest daughter of Carl Sandburg and his remarkable wife, Lilian Steichen. Her uncle was the great photographer Edward Steichen. Like so many other Americans today, she sought the story of her origins and inheritance, of the grandparents who were immigrants from Sweden and Luxembourg. This is the story of a daughter's search into her past, a story of beginnings and ends, of doubts and joys. It is the account of a great and glorious romance that flowered over the years and survives in this book. ... Read more

Book Description

Carl Sandburg was, beyond any question, the "poet of the people."He found beauty in the ordinary language of the people, the "American lingo" as he called it, and turned it into poetry.His rhythams caught the pulse of Americans and his poems entered its bloodstream.

When Sandburg died in 1967, President Lyndon Johnson stated, "there is no end to the legacy he leaves us." ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (1)

Educators Recommend
In this biography of Carl Sandburg, Penelope Niven draws on her considerable knowledge of the poet to create a first-rate presentation. (Niven is the author of Carl Sandburg: A Biography as well as the founder and director the National Carl Sandburg Oral History Project.)

The book proceeds in chronological fashion. Each double-page section juxtaposes biographical information (on the left) with one of Sandburg's poems or a prose selection (on the right). This has the effect of making the poems and prose more personal, more meaningful. In the section titled "Soldier," for example, Niven discusses Sandburg's participation in the Spanish-American War. He and fellow soldiers had to wade "ashore in deep water, dressed in hot wool uniforms left over from the Civil War." On the facing page we read the poignant "New Feet":

Empty battlefields keep their phantoms.
Grass crawls over old gun wheels
And nodding Canada thistle flings a purple
Into the summer's southwest wind,

Wrapping a root in the rust of a bayonet,
Reaching a blossom in the rust of shrapnel.

Marc Nadel's watercolor-and-crosshatch illustrations are beautifully done, historically accurate, and the perfect compliment to Niven's text. According to the "Illustration Notes," Sandburg's personal possessions are featured in the artwork.

Carl Sandburg was a multifaceted individual: a journalist, a family man, a storyteller, an historian, and a dreamer. Niven does an extraordinary job of bringing to life America 's "Poet of the People."

Highly recommended.

Reviewed by the Education Oasis Staff ... Read more

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Volume 1 of a four volume series. ... Read more

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"Twenty years in the planning and then 30 years in the writing, this monumental work is the greatest biography of Abraham Lincoln ever written. Complete and unabridged, this Collector Edition contains every chapter of Carl Sandburg's panoramic masterpiece. The Prairie Years is in two volumes and The War Years is in four volumes." ... Read more