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January 5, 2022

Almanac of Story Tellers: Carl Sandburg

  Every day brings a new story.  And each day contributes to the art of story telling -- in prose and poetry, in music, on the stage, on the screen, and, of course, in books

Today is the story of January 6th.

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    It is the sixth day of the year, leaving 359 days remaining in 2022. 

    On this date in 1878, the great American poet, Carl Sandburg, was born in Galesburg, Ill.

    A journalist by trade, and a three-time winner of the Pulitzer prize, Sandburg is best known for his poetry about the American experience. When he died in 1967, President Johnson said Sandburg  "was more than the voice of America. ... He was America."

    Sandburg was the poet who dubbed Chicago "the city of the big shoulders." In that poem, Chicago, published in 1914, Sandburg wrote lovingly about his adopted home. He acknowledged its faults, agreeing with those who called the city wicked, crooked, and brutal. Yet, he said, the city was alive and strong and proud. 

                         Bragging and laughing that under his wrist is the pulse,                                                                    and under his ribs the heart of the people,                                                                                                                                       Laughing! 
  
    In addition to his poertry, Sandburg wrote for the Chicago Daily News, flunked out of West Point after failing a grammer test, and wrote a milti-volume, award-winning biography of Abraham Lincoln. That work, adapted to film and later television, is credited with helping Americans learn about their 16th president, and contributing to a rise in Lincoln's stature. 

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