Chicago Poems

Chicago Poems is a 1916 collection of poetry by Carl Sandburg, his first by a mainstream publisher.

Chicago Poems
First edition
AuthorCarl Sandburg
LanguageEnglish
GenrePoetry
Published1916 (Henry Holt)
Media typePrint

Sandburg moved to Chicago in 1912 after living in Milwaukee, where he had served as secretary to Emil Seidel, Milwaukee's Socialist mayor. Harriet Monroe, a fellow resident of Chicago, had recently founded the magazine Poetry at around this time. Monroe liked and encouraged Sandburg's plain-speaking free verse style, strongly reminiscent of Walt Whitman.

Sandburg sent his manuscript to Alfred Harcourt, then a junior-ranking editor at Henry Holt. Facing opposition from above, Harcourt removed and censored—with Sandburg's co-operation—the harsher poems. For example, the direct criticism of "Billy Sunday" by name, previously published in The Masses and International Socialist Review,[1] was replaced with the more tepid and anonymous "To a Contemporary Bunkshooter".[2][3][4]

Chicago Poems established Sandburg as a major figure in contemporary literature.[5] Chicago Poems, and its follow-up volumes of verse, Cornhuskers (1918) and Smoke and Steel (1920) represent Sandburg's attempts to found an American version of social realism, writing expansive verse in praise of American agriculture and industry.

Further reading
  • Sandburg, Carl (1993). Hendrik, George; Hendrik, Willene (eds.). Billy Sunday and Other Poems. Harcourt Brace & Company.
  • Alexander, William (March 1973). "The Limited American, the Great Loneliness, and the Singing Fire: Carl Sandburg's "Chicago Poems"". American Literature. Duke University Press. 45 (1): 67–83. JSTOR 2924539.
  • Van Wienen, Mark (March 1991). "Taming the Socialist: Carl Sandburg's Chicago Poems and its Critics". American Literature. Duke University Press. 63 (1): 89–103. JSTOR 2926563.

References
  1. Sandburg, Carl. "Billy Sunday". The International Socialist Review. XVI (3): 152–3.
  2. Sandburg, Carl (1993). "Introduction". In Hendrik, George; Hendrik, Willene (eds.). Billy Sunday and Other Poems. Harcourt Brace & Company. pp. xi–xii.
  3. Van Wienen, Mark (March 1991). "Taming the Socialist: Carl Sandburg's Chicago Poems and its Critics". American Literature. Duke University Press. 63 (1): 89–103. JSTOR 2926563., pp. 99–101.
  4. Harcourt would soon found his own publishing firm, and Sandburg would later publish with Harcourt Brace.
  5. Monroe, Harriet (May 1916). "Chicago Granite:Chicago Poems by Carl Sandburg". Poetry. 8 (2): 90–93. JSTOR 20570797.
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