Carl Sandburg

Born in Galesburg, Illinois, to Swedish immigrant parents, he left school young and worked a string of jobs before his writing career took shape. That working-class background stayed close to his art, helping him write in a direct, musical style that felt rooted in everyday American life.

He is especially remembered for poems about Chicago, the Midwest, labor, and democracy, as well as for collecting and performing American folk songs. Beyond poetry, he was a journalist, editor, and biographer whose multi-volume life of Abraham Lincoln became one of his major achievements.

Across a long career, he won three Pulitzer Prizes—two for poetry and one for his Lincoln biography. His work remains notable for its warmth, plainspoken energy, and wide view of the American experience.