Visiting Carl Sandburg's Home

Flat Rock, NC

Tuesday, April 8, 2011

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Ever since I acquired a 1933 Martin OM-18 guitar once owned by Carl Sandburg (1878 - 1967), I've wanted to learn as much as I can about the famous poet, folksinger, biographer and womanizer.

                                                       National Park Service
Carl Sandburg Home — Flat Rock, NC

     I recently visited the Sandburg home because I want to document that part of his life associated with this rare and historic instrument, which he bought at a Los Angeles pawn shop in 1957 or 1958. What was the 80-year old poet doing in L.A. at the time? In addition to working on a script for The Greatest Story Ever Told, he was visiting his female friends classical music critic Mildred Norton (1910 - 2001) and Marilyn Monroe (1926 - 1962).
     So, now I'll begin to share what I found in the archives at the Sandburg Home as well my ongoing study with other sources who knew or worked with Sandburg.

     This was my first visit to the Sandburg Home, which is owned and managed by the National Park Service and set on 264 beautiful acres in western North Carolina. Built in the late 1830s, the structure houses Sandburg's personal belongings, library, furnishings, Mrs. Sandburg's goat farm, and some — but not all — of Sandburg's papers.
     I've learned that the majority of Sandburg's letters, diaries, photographs, books and ephemera are housed at University of Illinois in Champaign-Urbana, IL. Telephone calls and emails to the U of I Library with research questions and requests for online access to these materials have been unproductive.

     However, on a splendid spring day I worked with NPS curators Ashley Tate and Miriam Ferris at the Museum Preservation Center where thousands of Sandburg documents are stored. Together we poured through hundreds of letters as well as carbon copies of letters sent to or from Sandburg and his family by his literary agent Lucy Kroll and other correspondents. To my delight, several letters shed new light on Sandburg's lucrative work in Hollywood as well as his relationship with Norton, Monroe and other celebrities in the early 1960s.

     Sandburg owned and played many guitars during his lifetime. The U of I Library has about 100 period photographs of Sandburg playing a guitar. Late in life he favored nylon-stringed classical guitars to honor Andrés Segovia, his musical bon ami, and because they were easier on his fingers to play than steel-stringed instruments.

     When he passed away he left behind six instruments at his North Carolina residence, which the National Park Service possesses. Though protected, none are in playable condition. But mine, completed by C. F. Martin Co. on August 16, 1933, is the only one with extensive provenance, including dated, hand-written and post-marked love letters from Sandburg to Norton as well as a letter by Norton describing Sandburg's purchase of the his OM-18.

     I aim to document Sandburg's guitar playing, his work in Hollywood and his relationship with Norton, Monroe, Kroll and other female contemporaries. And lest it go unsaid, I also hope to locate other documents, photographs and ephemera associated with his 1933 Martin — the Sandburg guitar.

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© 2011 Kenneth Lelen - All Rights Reserved

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