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Carl Sandburg

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Carl Sandburg is regarded as one of America's most famous poets. He is best known for his biography of Abraham Lincoln and the poems about the prairies of Illinois and the Midwest.

Sandburg was born in Galesburg in 1878 and went on to become a Pulitzer Prize winning poet, novelist, journalist, children's author, and folk song writer. He grew up in the fields of western Illinois, traveled the rails of the midwest, campaigned for the Socialist party, was a film critic and a Chicago advocate. Sandburg's poetry expressed the earthy nature of America, finding both soft and harsh beauty amongst her people.

Sandburg died in 1967 at his home in North Carolina at the age of 88. On October 1st of the same year, his ashes were buried beneath "Remembrance Rock" at his birthplace. He is memorialized during the Sandburg Days Festival in Galesburg which is held annually in mid-April.