Carl Sandburg Books

Great book! I grew up with it, and rediscovered it just now. Wonderful!!

This is my favorite book. I purchased it when I was 18, and loved black and white photography. I am now 65, and still see the same basic beauty in the photographs. It's not about the 1950's, or showing American culture. It shows how universal and similiar all people of all races and cultures are. It shows young children playing, people falling in love, weddings, births, hard work, wars, death, grieving, and even hope from various people and countries from our planet Earth. One family. One people. This is a collection of love, not about a specific time, or place, or our differences. This is a book that shows our skin colors, clothes, and countries may change; but we are all the same.

I am so glad Family of Man is still available. I would also suggest that in conjunction with this book, you offer Family of Women, and Family of Children.

I first found this book at Foyle's in London, about 35 years ago, and it struck me. Since then, I bought five copies of the Family of Man, but no one remained in my home, because ever I felt the need to give this book to someone I loved or trusted.
What is making this book so precious to me?
First the idea itself of collecting pictures from the whole world (remember, when Steichen launched his project, the Cold War and the related hysteria was at its peak). This to demonstrate that all the human beings have to pass through the same events in their life: birth, growth, education, emotions, work, love, children, reflection, death. This apparently trivial concept leads to a conclusion by far less trivial: we all do belong to one family, our species, the humans (by the way, this thinking had not so great success in the past, nor the present seems to be more benevolent).
The Family of Man is exactly the visual demonstration of such a concept, by comparing the same events as viewed from different geographic and cultural perspectives, by means of photos from renowned or unknown photographers (of course, the pictures from the US are prevailing in numbers for logistics and statistical reasons: it was by far more simple for an US photographer to even simply receive the news of the Steichen project than for a photographer in Rwanda or in the USSR).
Steichen and his assistants made an impressive selection, shortlisting 503 pictures from the over 2 million they received. By the way, Steichen was a photographer, and his selection also considered the aesthetic side of the question: most of the pictures selected simply are wonderful.
The result is this book. I think no one on this planet can miss it, because The Family of Man is representative of a large part of our culture and on our very nature.
To give an example, in my opinion this book is at the same emotional and rational level as Homer's Odyssey, Dante's Divine Comedy, Melville's Moby Dick, primo Levi's If this is a Man, or the ancient Greek lyrics, to quote some comparisons.
I hope it will continue to be published; we, the humans, desperately need it.

I've always thought of THE FAMILY OF MAN as a magic book, ever since discovering it on the family bookshelves when I was a young child. The thing was (above and beyond the book's excellence and power to move anyone with a heart), for many years it seemed that every time I would delve into this book, there would be at least one new picture, one I could swear I'd never seen before. I still sometimes have that experience (although nowadays I tend to attribute it to an aging mind). I do remember at first being most impressed and guiltily fascinated by the powerful pictures of birth, which my siblings, our friends and I would look at, giggling in horrified wonder, and by those "nasty" (actually, beautiful) pictures of breastfeeding. I still remember our mom explaining that there was nothing "nasty" about any of those pictures, that they were true and lovely. That was only one of many life lessons she taught us, using images from this book.

Each image is a whole story, a world, unto itself, and the beauty is the connection of each one to all the others, just as we are all connected to each other in the family of man (as well as to all that the world comprises, like it or not). As others have written, I have given numerous copies of this book as gifts over the years. (That was not so successful when I gave it to my brother and sister-in-law as part of their wedding present. My brother had grown up with it, but his bride had never seen it before, and was somewhat horrified and disgusted by it; unfathomable to me. I don't think it lasted long in their home, if it ever made it there at all.)

Sometime in the mid-'90s I bought a new copy in a bookstore, and was upset and very disappointed to discover how it had been changed and messed up in that edition (which was, I believe, put out under the aegis of Disney's Buena Vista Entertainment). The look and feel of the paper were wrong, to begin with: too bright white and thick. Pictures had been cropped differently and (I think I'm remembering correctly on this), in some cases, laid out somewhat differently. I recommend avoiding such copies (I don't know what is being published now in that regard, or if the book is out of print, or if they've gone back to the original look and feel); the differences, though subtle, really are jarring and very much diminish the quality. This 'brightened' version came in the wake of a spate of "Family of..." books (Women, Children, and I think maybe a couple of others), that always seemed opportunistic, a little crass, and pitiful in their inability to approach the fundamental, universal, inevitable feeling of the original. Not that these others were without merit, but almost always, an original will far overshadow any sequels or copies that come after it. That's certainly the case here.

Nicely bound. Really does have all of his poems. Good paper quality. Very satisfied.

I read some stuff by Carl Sandburg when I was in high school, but now that I am considering writing as more of an art form I wanted to delve more into poetry, and this book is definately a great collection of one of America's greatest poets

I am a big fan of Sandburg. This is the most complete collection of his works that I have seen. His poetry is so full of strength and hope. Nothing is too frilly but still very beautiful. His poetry always reminds me of the verbal equivalent of a piece of art by Norman Rockwell - true down to the dirt on the skin but so full of awe and respect for his subject. Have a wonderful time reading this collection!

For me Sandburg is the poet of 'immortal lines' gleaned from anthologies. " The cat comes in on little cloud's feet' " Tell me if the lovers are the losers in the tombs, the cool tombs" " Chicago, beefhandler, wheat- stacker of the nation" Sandburg writes clearly and some might say is poetry is just prose chopped up into lines, but he has a strength and a humane sense that I find admirable. He is not given today the attention I believe he deserves. An inspiring poet who should be read more than he is.

Fifty years ago Carl Sandburg's poetry could be found in nearly every library, classroom and (in some form) home in America, but in the hurried twenty-first century, where too much bad poetry has spoiled whole living generations on the art, he is all-but lost to our social consciousness. This poet of freedom (even his poems disobey every respected rule of form) penned verses that celebrated the American spirit as no other writer had since Walt Whitman. If presented with a sampling of his most famous lines, the average American would probably light up and say, "Oh, yeah! Okay, I've heard that one." Reading the collected works of this Midwesterner is full of such moments of re-discovery. All of Sandburg's published books are here, putting his many hundreds of poems on display. His finest work, the controversial, slow-moving, stream of consciousness piece "The People, Yes" alone makes this anthology a gift to modern readers, but many other unexpected gems await to delight, challenge, inform, or taunt with sheer irony. Though some of these poems date back nearly a century, at no time does Sandburg ever sound anything but cutting-edge and post-modern. He is one of the greats for all ages of man.

Thousands upon thousands of Civil War books are available, as American readers seem to have a limitless appetite for that era. If you are looking for the best, read Sandburg on Lincoln. A major American poet takes on one of the best-known, best-loved, most tragic of American historical figures.

When I was a freshman in high school, our English teacher offered us a deal: Anyone who read Sandburg's biography (then in six rather daunting volumes) would not have to attend class for a semester. I took him up on that offer, and was blessed to find my way through Sandburg's gift to the American people. Here is the highly detailed, thoroughly researched, and articulately written story of Abe Lincoln's years among us.

If you have time to read only one of the Civil War books from that burgeoning genre, read this one. You will come to know, from the inside out, this prairie boy who became a towering figure in American history.

I collect old and rare books. My mother bought me a copy of Sandburg's one-volume edition published in 1954. Honestly, it was slow to start, but once it got to the 1850's, I couldn't put it down. Lincoln's deeds are so often trivialized in our history books. But Sandburg meticulously builds up the background in a way that forces his reader to appreciate the magnitude of the moment, and the importance of each decision--whether right or wrong--that President Lincoln made. It easily took three full weeks to read, but it was more than worth it. I closed the book thinking, "I can't believe it's over!" My advice: Read this book right away, and make someone else read it too. You'll need someone to talk to when you're through!

I believe Sandburg is the only author to win the Pulitzer for both poetry and history. Originally a multi volume history taking decades to complete, this single volume work is an appetizer. I read it in the 1960's and went on with relish to the full multi volume work.

This single volume is insightful, laser like in it's detail yet painting the times of Lincoln in a broad and beautiful brush. Did you know that in 1860 tools could be honed to within one ten thousandth of an inch of accuracy? That magazines and newspapers said the world would change for-ever because of the new "instant" communication nation wide?

This is more than biography. It is a woven fabric depicting the times and life of Abraham Lincoln.

Abraham Lincoln comes to life through the words of his devoted and talented biographer, Carl Sandburg. This edition is an excellent compromise between Sandburg's six-volume edition and the shorter, incomplete texts that abound regarding Lincoln. Take your time with this masterpiece and follow Lincoln from youth through the climax of his political career in Washington.

This biography of lincoln is an unbiased look into the man's life. You'll find everything you would expect and much, much, more. This is not a book for the weak hearted reader. Many of the sections seem to be endless. This is not however a negative, the opposite is true. Sandburg's quest for a truly indepth redering of the Lincoln story creates these long spells and the pay off is just. Much of the humor in the book is dated and therefore will be lost on many readers. Once again, an outstanding book that gets an easy 5 stars.

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!

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!

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!

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.

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.

This story shows a little of what it was like decades ago in the heartland. Great artwork too.

I grew up a voracious reader and somehow, I missed this gem of a book! We checked it out from the library and now must have it. Sandburg's writing is reminiscent of Dr. Suess in novel word usage and syntax and the story telling reminds me of NPR's A Prairie Home Companion. A great tall tale that enthralled my 6 year old twins and 4 year old and that I enjoyed reading WAY too much! Add to your collection!

When my mom read this book to my sister and me, it had already entertained young readers for about 50 years. How lucky were we that this story had been preserved for the purpose of delighting us to the very core of our young beings? The idea of a popcorn farm catching fire was thoroughly thought provoking for an already thought-filled pre-schooler.

When I recently purchased it for my own little girls, I must admit that I suffered a major disappointment. You see, the Huckabuck family has a pony faced daughter named, "Pony Pony Huckabuck." Unbeknownst to me (and in my honor) every single time that my mom read this book, that daughter became "Joanie Joanie Huckabuck." Now, I can't decide if I should be upset that Sandburg didn't really name one of his main characters for me, or that my mom re-named the "PONY FACED" child after me.

In any case, I highly recommend this book to any parent who would like to share a very interesting story, told with interesting language, with their children.

Carl Sandburg's Huckabuck Family will delight and charm children of every age with a story of family pride and optimism. When the Huckabucks Nebraska barn burns down and all their popcorn pops, they decide to go on the road and wait for a sign to tell them when to come back home. Each year they move to a new town and Papa finds a new job. The Huckabucks may have good luck, or bad, but they always have each other. David Small's illustrations add just the right touch to the story and are so detailed that even the farm animals have facial expressions. So, sit down and take a trip across the country and back with the Huckabucks. I promise, you won't be disappointed. This is a wonderful book the whole family can share.

This book is a satisfying follow-up to David Small's last twobooks, The Gardener & The Library. Though this is an old story its optimistic message suits Small's whimsical style beautifully. I'm thoroughly confused by the review in Kirkus that criticizes the repetitive nature of the names--this is part of Sandburg's poetic form--as well as the "pointless" nature of the Huckabuck family's travels, which is actually the whole point of the story. One must take a change in luck in stride, go out and find one's new fortune, and you may even find yourself back home having learned a thing or two. Cheers (& 5 stars) to the Huckabucks, Sandburg, and David Small.

What can you say about Always the Young Strangers, other than it reads as well in 2004 as it did in 1953. Sandburg's look at his boyhood in Galesburg, Illinois has all the elements of opening a time capsule and looking back at the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
I am most fascinated by Sandburg's relationship with the Krans family who lived outside of Galesburg on a small farm. The respect that Sandburg accords the Krans' sturdy immigrant spirit permeates the entire book. Read the description of John Krans' death at the end of the book. It brought tears to my eyes.
Sandburg's shakey relationship with his father also attracted me to the book since I had the same type of relationship with my dad. August Sandburg never appreciated his son's writing talent. It took the mother, Clara, to nurture her son's mighty pen.
When I worked there in the 1970's, natives of Galesburg would tell me how much Sandburg hated the city. Always the Young Strangers tells a much different story. The love that Sandburg had for Galesburg and western Illinois jumps off the pages of this book. What a great read!

Carl Sandburg's Always the Young Strangers is not a new book but that is what makes it such a compelling read. In an era marked by the popularity of the memoir, Sandburg's tales of growing up in Galesburg, IL at the end of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s allow the reader to hear a distinctive voice no longer with us speak again. This is not any ordinary voice either but voice of a poet clearly in love with words. Though his boyhood stories are simple, they are rich with detail that allow us insight into Sandburg's future as a poet and as a most notable biographer of Abraham Lincoln--in it, for example, Sanburg recalls attending a funeral procession (probably one of many held across the country in a time long before TV allowed the nation to mourn together as we did when JFK was buried) for U.S. Grant and watching from atop his father's shoulders as the various mourners passed. Clearly, this event, along with others he mentions, fed Sandburg's curiosity about the Civil War and led him to write his many volumes about Lincoln. If, like me, you enjoy autobiography and memoir, you will enjoy Always the Young Strangers.

If one hears the name Sandburg, the first thing to come to mind is probably "Fog" or "City of Big Shoulders." But in reading this wonderful memoir, we are reminded of what a fine prose writer the man was. The tale of his struggling Swedish immigrant parents finding their way in late nineteenth century America and young "Charley" as he liked to be called, as the name Carl marked him as a foreigner, is a fascinating glimpse of a bygone time and place. The interesting jobs that young Carl took on, such as traveling the back roads selling stereo-optican views, and his conversations with a civil war vet are rewarding and insightful. I believe this is a wonderful read for anyone with a love of biography, history, or simply good storytelling.

Right from the start this book is one of those that just feels good in the hand. A thin aesthetically pleasing little volume it has a red satin ribbon to mark your place and a brightly colored huge red heart invites you inside from the front cover. The text is a love poem by the great Carl Sandburg that has never before been published. The pictures are by Anita Lobel and they are filled with glad, warm-hearted images and colors.
A young man goes to "where the aurora borealises grow" and brings home a beautiful speciman for his true love's birthday. The enchanting swirls of color actually do quite well at depicting the essence of the aurora borealis and its mysterious, magical light show. I know, because the northern lights were swirling in the skies over my home just a few nights ago and Lobel captured the feeling just perfectly.
We follow the young man's struggle to find and bring the aurora borealis to his love and we believe that his feelings are so strong that he really can do anything for his love that he sets his heart on doing. He offers to bring her more aurora borealises or even a rainbow if she would like. This poetical man is letting her know that he will always work hard for her and struggle through life with her which is something a young woman may hope for, but this clever man has found a beautiful and romantic way to say it. His sensitivity to her need for beauty and abundance is the endearing point of the colorful promises he makes in this story.
I treasure this book and I think it makes a wonderful gift for anyone you love, especially yourself.

I'm an avid reader of all sorts of novels. I've read 'em with thousands of pages, but none of them have ever moved me as much as this little book did. Both the poem and the illustration have a magical, enchanting quality to them. Buy it for yourself or as a gift. It's well worth the money.

This book is so amazing that when i picked it up in the store and started reading it, i began to cry right there in the shop. i've never experienced that sort of thing in before. i bouth the book right there on the spot with money i had ear-marked for something else. It is just a really simple, really beautiful poem about love with wonderful illustrations. It makes a beautiful present for a child or even a sweetheart.

I love this book. It I so up beat and moving. I find this book moving far into the future of young peope and i hope to see it on my childs desk.

This is another addition to one of the best literary projects to come along in quite some time...Poetry for Young People. This particular work of course deals with the works of Carl Sandburg. It is illustrated by Steven Arcella. The book, as with the others in this series, starts with an introduction to the poet. This is good stuff alone. It is good to know something about the author of the work you are reading, and children, probably more so than adults, need this information. This volume includes Sandburg's Fog, From the Shore, Young Sea, Last Answers, A Sphinx, Little Girl.. Be Careful What You Say, Margaret, Arithmetic, Plowboy, Monotone, Phizzog, Mask, Summer Grass, Summer Stars, Sky Talk, October Paint, Old Woman, Buffalo Dust, a Coin and Doors. I certainly am not going to remark on the quality of Sandburg's work. Those who read him will be well aware of this. This collection though, is upbeat, delightful and gives a pretty good view of the poet's range.

The art work which accompanies the poems is very appealing and relaxing and very well executed. Like the poetry, it has a dream like quality and is a delight.

This is a book which is perfect to read to your child or to an entire class. Poetry has fallen out of fashion in many of our schools now, which is not only a shame, but I feel almost a crime. Our kids are missing so very, very much. This little edition is an ideal start. It, and the rest of this series, should be in ever school library, in every class room and indeed, on your kid's book shelf. I do highly recommend this one.

Don Blankenship

Like other offerings in this series from the American Poets Project, this one hits the mark. Craig Matteson has already given us a wonderful reivew of this book here, so I will certainly not cover the same ground. From a personal point of view though, Sandburg has always been one of my favorite poets. I am rather a simple person and his style and subject matter fit my needs perfectly. As Matteson has pointed out, poetry must be read slowly and often to be truely enjoyed. Several of my favorites are published in this small volume, which includes "Billy Sunday," and "White Ash." It just does not get much better than that. I did enjoy the introduction by Paul Berman, the editor. He gives us a brief publishing history and discusses the Sanburg Pound link, which I found fascinating for some reason. All in all, this and other offerings from the American Poets Project are a good thing and well worth adding to your collection. We should all be grateful.

Carl Sandburg had a long career that had a kind of kaleidoscopic transformation over its many decades. His best regarded poems come from the teens and twenties of the last century. His imagery was that of the Midwest with its plains, farms, and the booming industry and rising skyscrapers of Chicago.

Almost no one younger than fifty can remember how popular he was. He won a Pulitzer Prize for his final four volumes of the six volume biography of Lincoln in 1940. This massive biography is an apt example of Sandburg's changing career. The ordinary folks loved it, and once they did the sophisticates and scholars couldn't demean it enough, but this rejection came later. He won a second Pulitzer for his collected poems in "The Complete Poems" in 1951. The radio loved his old fashioned style of reading poetry almost as a song and later he added a guitar to his readings and was popular on TV.

His brand of American Nationalism grew less popular in the mid-1960s and after he died in mid-1967, the rabid anti-War movement rejected all such patriotism as a kind of jingoism that was not acceptable to the young. Sandburg's reputation faded from that time. He is still fondly remembered by many, but not a cultural icon as he once was.

In his younger years he was a socialist, such as American Socialism was in those early years of the last century. He helped organize workers, worked at socialist publications where many of his poems appeared. However, as the socialist movement became more radical, he did not go with them. The common man and woman with their ordinary lives of work, toil, hopes, suffering, entertainments, loves, violence, and their massive and anonymous contribution to our nation's wealth and social order were his focus and his muse.

This wonderful volume contains selections from those volumes focuses on those early decades. Some of the poems I find magical and they still retain much power. "Skyscraper" (pg 19) seems one of the finer poems to me. Of course, there the famous - almost brand name - poems such as "Chicago" with its "Hog Butcher for the World" and "City of the Big Shoulders". And the not always well received "The People, Yes!"

He also has poems as a kind of epitaph for the famous of his day that had passed. You will probably need to search the web for the names to know who many of them were. Remember, when he wrote these poems, they were commenting on contemporary society. For us, it is a passed age. Nothing ages faster than the modern. A few of the poems are almost like haiku (I wonder if it was deliberate) and one sounds almost Nietzschean. "The Hammer" from 1910 on pg 132 could have come from the pages of "Twilight of the Idols".

Poems take time to read, so even a slim volume such as this requires some time. Not because it is hard to read, or because you can't zip through it, but because poems require time to resonate. The whole point is less to tell you something from the outside as a technical manual would, but to use the words and images in the poem to resonate with what is in you. It is the resonance and the kinds of emotional harmonics it sounds out in you that create the music of the poem and from which it derives its power and worth to generations. Works of art, especially the great works, are really not available for people to judge them in terms of final worth. Rather, the works of art judge us by how we judge them. What we are able to find in ourselves as we engage the work helps us see what it is we have within us, or what we lack.

The volume begins with a fine essay on Sandburg by the editor, Paul Berman. Rather than compare Sandburg with Robert Frost (the two seem paired by fate and are often confused), he spends his time showing the connection and contrast between Sandburg and Ezra Pound. After the poems there is a short biographical note and a note on the text.

Recommended. This volume is yet another example of why we owe the great Library of America our support and gratitude.

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.

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 such a personal way, that poetry could be warm, sad, funny and powerful all at the same time. While my friends talked about Kerouac, and Ginsberg, and of course Catcher in the Rye, I read everything Carl Sandburg ever wrote. I used my original copy to teach my high school students with until the cover fell off and the pages came apart. It has always held a special spot on my bookshelf, and now I have given this book to my daughter, and she carries it with her everywhere with her own copy of "Always The Young Strangers". She said she never knew poetry could be so powerful, yet easy to understand. Until I gave her this book, she said she hated to read the poetry they assign in school because "this is poetry. It has so much to say, and I know he wants me to understand his words, and he doesn't hide behind archaic language, literary symbols or obscure references that seem irrelevant." The Poetry of Carl Sanburg is timeless. I never understood why his place in American Literature was not much higher. To me he is the best American poet of the twentieth century, in a class by himself. After thirty years and hundreds of readings, I still find something new every time.