Carl Sandburg: Our Candidate for the American

Chicago: Workman for Workmen Inc, 1960. Paperback. Small 4to. Heavy stock trifold leaflet. Illustration. Fine. Original unaddressed mailing envelope. An interesting, oddball poem. The author, a Chicago business woman and social activist who befriended Carl Sandburg in the 1950s and became unusually close to him, was, writes Sandburg biographer Penelope Niven, "statuesque and extraordinarily beautiful." Inner central panel of this triptych is a full-page artist's head-and-shoulder rendering of a younger Sandburg gazing intensely, while left panel bears a small hourglass graphic and Sandburg phrase ("Time is a storyteller") while right panel features the lengthy five-stanza poem of the title. Workman is not known as a poet, but clearly Sandburg inspired her and this attempt reads quite Sandburgesque, imitative of his 1936 book-length poem "The People, Yes." Front cover of this handsomely printed piece features a blue and grey decoration and is titled simply "1950-1960," apparently referring to a brief second poem on one outer leaf ("TEN YEARS AGO... / this month / We dreamed on new ways to set going -- / hands, arms, and legs... for the production / of industry; nailing our dream to the stars by / hard ways. / The trials and hardships have been worth it / Because we know that the 'City of the Big shoulders' / shaped our shadow with a person decision of-- / faith....") -- whether Workman for Workmen is a nonprofit of some sort is entirely unclear. Accompanying this is a small, charming printed gift card from the Chicago tie firm Carston Original Cravats, 3½" X 3½". Front cover is a color caricature perhaps of company founder Ernest J. Carston, a smiling beret-capped figure holding up a blue necktie; inside panel bears a printed "The Season's Greetings," below which Workman boldly pens "With love, / Donna" in blue ballpoint. Very good. Quite unusual -- as far as we can determine this represents the only poetry published by Sandburg's greatest groupie.