Description
Book SynopsisIn the winter of 1914, Carl Sandburg, then a reporter at The Day Book in Chicago, submitted several of his poems to Harriet Monroe’s Poetry magazine. The title poem began: “Hog Butcher for the World, / Tool Maker, Stacker of Wheat...” Monroe at first hesitated to accept the poems because of “their unorthodox form and their range from brutality to misty lyricism.” But she took a deep breath and printed them. In the decade that followed, Sandburg came quickly to national prominence. In Poems for the People, George and Wilene Hendrick, Sandburg’s most accomplished interpreters, have selected seventy-three poems from his early years in Chicago, almost all of them never before in print. Included are poems of social protest, gentle ruminations, and poems about teeming Chicago life. Sandburg may have regarded them as too radical for the time; others may have been set aside and never retrieved. This unearthed treasure, together with the Hendrick’s biographical introduction and commentary on the poems, mark Poems for the People as a major publishing event.
Trade ReviewThese unfamiliar early poems reveal a vigorous young talent whose artistic technique was as experimental as his social vision was unblinkered. -- Judith L. Everson
One needs this book...to know the real Sandburg. -- Ronnie Dugger
Vigorous and original...Sandburg still has much to say to us. -- Betsy Colquitt
An absolutely exhilarating read...a genuine literary event, a virtual rediscovery of an American treasure. -- Michael Van Walleghen
An excellent overview of one of America's most widely recognized 20th century poets. It is readable, informative and fascinating study. * Kliatt *
