“A Dream Girl” was an early poem written by Carl Sandburg, and published later in his book : “Chicago Poems” (1916); a longing expressed to find his dream girl. “The Poet and the Dream Girl, The Love Letters of Lilian Steichen and Carl Sandburg”, edited by their eldest daughter, Margaret Sandburg, is a compilation of the letters and poetry that were written between the two, in the first six months of 1908, during their budding, long-distance courtship; they married in June of that year. They met in Wisconsin, 1907, while Lilian was on Christmas break from her teaching job in Princeton, Illinois. Carl, going by Charles then, arrived in Milwaukee, straight from his lecture circuit, for a meeting with Carl D. Thompson, the state organizer for the Social-Democratic Party. Sandburg was there to become a member and an organizer for the party, having been intrigued & seduced by the Social-Democratic movement. He wrote, “I had never made a socialist speech, though I had read classics of socialism by Marx, Engels, Liebknecht, and had read for six months ‘The Worker’, the leading journal of the socialist party of New York, and the Social Democratic Herald, weekly organ of the Wisconsin socialists”. In addition to organizing in the Lake Shore and Fox River Valley district, he wrote a weekly report on activities, printed in the Social Democratic Herald. On his second visit to Brisbane Hall in December 1907, he met Lilian Steichen, who had stopped to visit with her dear friends on her way back to Illinois. Carl asked if he might write to her, and she, knowing how badly they needed organizers wanted to encourage “a comrade in the movement”, and so the letters began. Though working long hours, Carl continued writing poetry & prose, and wrote “Labor and Politics”, an article published by the Social-Democratic Press, and distributed at meetings. Carl wrote to Lilian, and she responded on 1/7/1908. (Some beginning letters were lost, but most of the original letters resided in the Rare Book Room of The University of Illinois, at Champaign-Urbana.)
The correspondence in “The Poet and the Dream Girl”, trace the poetic and passionate sentiments, ideals, and growing commitment to their shared zeal for socialism, art and literature. The letters demonstrate the mutual admiration of two sound, growing minds, embracing their shared world. Carl wrote Lilian, “The coincidences of our ideas and plans and whims is something I would not have believed till — Wonder Woman came”. Lilian had attended an academy in Chatham, Ontario, and a year at University of Illinois, transferring in fall of 1901, to the University of Chicago, graduating December 1903, with a bachelor of philosophy (Phi Beta Kappa), and with honors in Latin and English. In 1904, she had various jobs of translating from Latin and German. In September 1904, she took a teaching position in Valley City, North Dakota, for two years, before moving to Princeton, IL, in 1906, to teach high school, ‘Literature and Expression’. Lilian and Carl each had “a mind at work”, and the letters show their growing esteem for each other. Their second meeting was on March 27, 1908, when Carl visited the Steichen farm in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, the weekend of Lilian’s brother, Edward Jean Steichen’s birthday; Edward already becoming a famed photographer. Carl and Lilian’s second meeting sealed their bond, he proposed, she accepted. They met, for only the third time in Chicago, in May 1908, before their June wedding; then they moved to Milwaukee. Lilian encouraged him to continue writing poetry, and to go by his given name, Carl, and he nicknamed her Paula.
Carl August Sandburg, born 1/6/1878, in Galesburg, IL, the second of 7 children, born to Swedish immigrants, his family called him, Charlie; he delivered papers, then milk, worked as a janitor, bricklayer, porter, shined shoes in Galesburg’s Union Hotel. He threshed wheat in Kansas, before traveling briefly as a hobo. He volunteered in 1898 for service during the Spanish-American war, was stationed in Puerto Rico. He returned to ‘the Burg’, attended Lombard College, joined the Poor Writers club. Lombard professor, Phillip Green Wright, a scholar & political liberal encouraged the talented young Sandburg to continue writing. Sandburg saw first-hand the contrasts between the rich and the poor, instilling in him a distrust of capitalism; his writing and political views were greatly impacted by his experiences working & traveling. He was influenced by the muckrakers, reform-minded journalists of his day, and the hard living conditions of the masses, in the days before child labor laws, when young children worked in unsafe factories for ten hours daily, seven days a week. He worked in Chicago, as an editor and lecturer, before joining the Socialist movement. He was a prolific-author, poet laureate, journalist, historian, biographer, folklorist, folk-singer, wrote children’s stories; he won two Pulitzer prizes for his poetry and another Pulitzer for his five-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln. Carl was invited to the White House under four different presidents, beginning with FDR. Sandburg was a statesman, but foremost he was a Thinker, a Dreamer, and a Lover of humanity.
Carl, Lilian and their three daughters, Margaret, Janet and Helga (also an author) moved to Flat Rock, North Carolina, in 1945, with their small herd of prize-winning goats; that delightful residence open for tours. Lilian, being the intellect she was, later gained world-renown as a leading expert in goat-breeding. Carl died 7/22/1967, in Flat Rock, NC, but he and Lilian’s ashes lie beneath Remembrance Rock, at East 3rd St, Galesburg, IL. Lilian, born 5/1/1883, in Hancock, MI, of Luxembourgian descent, passed 2/18/1977. They were born into a much different time than today; social standards have risen dramatically, much has changed in our world. Two beautiful souls found each other, and the world was made better by their love, their ideas, their work, and their offspring. They made their mark upon this world, which was vastly improved because they, and others like them, lived and worked and dreamed it into manifestation. How might we do the same? A parting line from Carl Sandburg poem: “You”: “We will rest in the hearts of remembering men, who saw us as we passed.”
Trish Forsyth Voss
Mar 2 2021
“THE POET AND THE DREAM GIRL”, the beginning of the love-story between Carl and Lilian.
“A Dream Girl” was an early poem written by Carl Sandburg, and published later in his book : “Chicago Poems” (1916); a longing expressed to find his dream girl. “The Poet and the Dream Girl, The Love Letters of Lilian Steichen and Carl Sandburg”, edited by their eldest daughter, Margaret Sandburg, is a compilation of the letters and poetry that were written between the two, in the first six months of 1908, during their budding, long-distance courtship; they married in June of that year. They met in Wisconsin, 1907, while Lilian was on Christmas break from her teaching job in Princeton, Illinois. Carl, going by Charles then, arrived in Milwaukee, straight from his lecture circuit, for a meeting with Carl D. Thompson, the state organizer for the Social-Democratic Party. Sandburg was there to become a member and an organizer for the party, having been intrigued & seduced by the Social-Democratic movement. He wrote, “I had never made a socialist speech, though I had read classics of socialism by Marx, Engels, Liebknecht, and had read for six months ‘The Worker’, the leading journal of the socialist party of New York, and the Social Democratic Herald, weekly organ of the Wisconsin socialists”. In addition to organizing in the Lake Shore and Fox River Valley district, he wrote a weekly report on activities, printed in the Social Democratic Herald. On his second visit to Brisbane Hall in December 1907, he met Lilian Steichen, who had stopped to visit with her dear friends on her way back to Illinois. Carl asked if he might write to her, and she, knowing how badly they needed organizers wanted to encourage “a comrade in the movement”, and so the letters began. Though working long hours, Carl continued writing poetry & prose, and wrote “Labor and Politics”, an article published by the Social-Democratic Press, and distributed at meetings. Carl wrote to Lilian, and she responded on 1/7/1908. (Some beginning letters were lost, but most of the original letters resided in the Rare Book Room of The University of Illinois, at Champaign-Urbana.)
The correspondence in “The Poet and the Dream Girl”, trace the poetic and passionate sentiments, ideals, and growing commitment to their shared zeal for socialism, art and literature. The letters demonstrate the mutual admiration of two sound, growing minds, embracing their shared world. Carl wrote Lilian, “The coincidences of our ideas and plans and whims is something I would not have believed till — Wonder Woman came”. Lilian had attended an academy in Chatham, Ontario, and a year at University of Illinois, transferring in fall of 1901, to the University of Chicago, graduating December 1903, with a bachelor of philosophy (Phi Beta Kappa), and with honors in Latin and English. In 1904, she had various jobs of translating from Latin and German. In September 1904, she took a teaching position in Valley City, North Dakota, for two years, before moving to Princeton, IL, in 1906, to teach high school, ‘Literature and Expression’. Lilian and Carl each had “a mind at work”, and the letters show their growing esteem for each other. Their second meeting was on March 27, 1908, when Carl visited the Steichen farm in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, the weekend of Lilian’s brother, Edward Jean Steichen’s birthday; Edward already becoming a famed photographer. Carl and Lilian’s second meeting sealed their bond, he proposed, she accepted. They met, for only the third time in Chicago, in May 1908, before their June wedding; then they moved to Milwaukee. Lilian encouraged him to continue writing poetry, and to go by his given name, Carl, and he nicknamed her Paula.
Carl August Sandburg, born 1/6/1878, in Galesburg, IL, the second of 7 children, born to Swedish immigrants, his family called him, Charlie; he delivered papers, then milk, worked as a janitor, bricklayer, porter, shined shoes in Galesburg’s Union Hotel. He threshed wheat in Kansas, before traveling briefly as a hobo. He volunteered in 1898 for service during the Spanish-American war, was stationed in Puerto Rico. He returned to ‘the Burg’, attended Lombard College, joined the Poor Writers club. Lombard professor, Phillip Green Wright, a scholar & political liberal encouraged the talented young Sandburg to continue writing. Sandburg saw first-hand the contrasts between the rich and the poor, instilling in him a distrust of capitalism; his writing and political views were greatly impacted by his experiences working & traveling. He was influenced by the muckrakers, reform-minded journalists of his day, and the hard living conditions of the masses, in the days before child labor laws, when young children worked in unsafe factories for ten hours daily, seven days a week. He worked in Chicago, as an editor and lecturer, before joining the Socialist movement. He was a prolific-author, poet laureate, journalist, historian, biographer, folklorist, folk-singer, wrote children’s stories; he won two Pulitzer prizes for his poetry and another Pulitzer for his five-volume biography of Abraham Lincoln. Carl was invited to the White House under four different presidents, beginning with FDR. Sandburg was a statesman, but foremost he was a Thinker, a Dreamer, and a Lover of humanity.
Carl, Lilian and their three daughters, Margaret, Janet and Helga (also an author) moved to Flat Rock, North Carolina, in 1945, with their small herd of prize-winning goats; that delightful residence open for tours. Lilian, being the intellect she was, later gained world-renown as a leading expert in goat-breeding. Carl died 7/22/1967, in Flat Rock, NC, but he and Lilian’s ashes lie beneath Remembrance Rock, at East 3rd St, Galesburg, IL. Lilian, born 5/1/1883, in Hancock, MI, of Luxembourgian descent, passed 2/18/1977. They were born into a much different time than today; social standards have risen dramatically, much has changed in our world. Two beautiful souls found each other, and the world was made better by their love, their ideas, their work, and their offspring. They made their mark upon this world, which was vastly improved because they, and others like them, lived and worked and dreamed it into manifestation. How might we do the same? A parting line from Carl Sandburg poem: “You”: “We will rest in the hearts of remembering men, who saw us as we passed.”
Trish Forsyth Voss
By spiritspeak • Uncategorized 0