THE AMERICAN SONGBAG

Carl Sandburg's The American Songbag: songs he collected traveling a country that was as pretty as it was hard.

An exploration of the Carl Sandburg Archive from the Rare Book & Manuscript Library at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign.

Hear Carl Sandburg sing, 'I Ride an Old Paint,' recorded sometime in the 1930s or 40s, and published as a part of his The American Songbag. Sandburg: 'The song smells of saddle leather, sketches ponies and landscapes, and varies in theme from a realistic presentation ...

Carl Sandburg's life was like a tall tale. Yes, Sandburg was only a man. But, his words were Paul Bunyan; his words were John Henry: impossibly real. For much of the 20th century, Sandburg was synonymous with the American experience, a spokesman and writer on ...