BOOKS FOR CHILDREN, EDUCATION, AND HOMESCHOOLING
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CARL SANDBURG AND HIS WORKS

Carl Sandburg is best known for his biographies of Abraham Lincoln. Many people don't know that he also wrote fairy tales and poems for children. He won the Pulitzer Prize twice -- once for his multi-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln, and once for Complete Poems. I had the privilege of visiting his birthplace in Galesburg, Illinois with my children on a trip on the way to Massachusetts in 1989 when we were still home schooling, so a will share a few pictures here:

The first picture is of the family Bible in the house. If you want to see it larger, just click on it.

Unfortunately, my best pictures taken in Galesburg seem to be on a roll that we took to science camp before of after the trip, since somehow, the lake from that camp and it's many swans seem to be superimposed on the scenes from Sandburg's birthplace. There is a lovely wooded area in the backyard of the house, now known as the Carl Sandburg Park . In it is Remembrance Rock, named for Sandburg's only novel. The park invites visitors to it's quiet beauty to "come and remember." It was dedicated in 1966. The rock itself was unearthed during highway construction northeast of Galesburg and is made of red granite. After Sandburg's death in 1976, his ashes were returned to his birthplace and they were placed beneath Remembrance Rock. Ten years later, they were joined by the ashes of his wife, Lilian Paula Sandburg. Though the yard is a lovely place, it did not have the lake and swans, so try to imagine they aren't there. I tried to adjust for the frame divider that bisects the picture, but 1:00 am is no time to learn to use a photo retouching program. If I retouch the picture it detracts from the texture of the rock. Maybe one of you talented people can retouch it and send it to me. I still can't conceive of how this picture got this way. Clicking on this picture will show you more rock texture and more of the swans and lake.

Prairie-Town Boy is Sandburg's  own story of his childhood,  written for upper elementary and higher grades. His boyhood was filled with family love, and the adventure of exploring and discovering America. In the fifth grade he took home the first volume of Abbots, The History of Napoleon Bonaparte and spent the next weekend devouring it, trying to understand what kind of fighter Napoleon was. The next week he attacked the second volume. Since his sixth grade teacher strongly encouraged the reading habit in her students, he read "a row of history books" and he loved the American history series written by Charles Coffin, some of which we sell if you'd like to sample them. He also enjoyed the popular books of James Otis, Toby Tyler (which we carry) and Tim and Tip -- books he said all but the dumbest boys of his day read. The rest of the book I'll leave for you to read, since I can't tell you all about it here. 228 pages. BTH-2596. $4.95.

Abe Lincoln Grows Up by Carl Sandburg. Illustrated by James Daugherty. Harcourt Brace, 1956. This book is made from the first 27 chapters of Sandburg's famous two-volume biography of Lincoln for adults, Abraham Lincoln, the Prairie Years. It focuses on Lincoln's baby and boyhood years, his games and chores, the things he used, his life at Gentryville and on the Mississippi River, and his teen years splitting rails and engaging in other outdoor activities for fun and profit, until he left home when he was nineteen. But he still read every time  he had a chance. such was his thirst to learn. 222 pages.  BTH-2593. $5.40-D

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