The People, Yes, an exceptional, unread copy of the publisher's signed and limited first edition, retaining the original dust jacket and slipcase.
New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1936. First, signed, and limited edition. Hardcover. This is an exceptional, unread copy of the signed, limited, and numbered first edition. Sandburg signed “Carl Sandburg” in blue fountain pen on the half title and this copy is hand-numbered “71” in red on the half title verso limitation statement. The original slipcase and clear cellophane dust jacket are both present. Condition is truly fine. The binding, in quarter cream cloth with a printed paper spine label and blue cloth sides, is immaculate – square, immaculately clean, and beautifully bright with sharp corners and no apparent wear. The contents, with uncut signatures throughout, are definitively unread and likewise immaculate, the only sign of age being mild differential toning of the endpapers corresponding to the dust jacket flaps. The gilt top edges are pristine, as are the untrimmed fore and bottom edges. The book could pass for new. The original clear cellophane dust jacket, noteworthy merely for surviving, is also notably complete and unyellowed. There is a .75 inch closed tear to the upper front corner, undoubtedly from snagging on the slipcase at some point, and minor overall shrinkage and wrinkling, inevitable for this material. The publisher’s rigid, brown paper-covered slipcase is clean and complete, with some minor shelf wear to extremities. The original paper spine label (matching the volume) is intact and the heel of the slipcase spine is numbered in ink “71” matching the volume.
“When someone asked him what his favorite poem was, Sandburg replied, ‘It is a long poem, runs through a whole book titled, The People, Yes.’ This poem, written during the Depression, does not pity people, rather he celebrates them as those who make the law, persevere and ‘run the works, only they don’t know it yet – you wait and see.’ Padraic Colum said in the New York Sun, ‘The People, Yes is his most mature, most distinctive, his most appealing volume.’” The famous photographer Edward Steichen, Sandburg’s friend and brother-in-law, also referred to this volume as Sandburg’s best work.
America’s 20th century proletarian troubadour poet Carl Sandburg (1878-1967), defied easy categorization. “The poet of the American vernacular was not only a tough, gregarious reporter, but a rollicking folk musician”. He wrote children’s books, worked as a Social-Democratic Party political organizer and aide, and became both a Hollywood advisor and State Department emissary. He was likely the only Pulitzer Prize winner to have been a bona fide, incarcerated, rail-hopping hobo, and remains the only Pulitzer Prize winner to have won awards for both Poetry and History. “Sandburg spoke to and for the American Century in which he lived and did his work.”
His first volume of poetry, Chicago Poems, which immediately preceded Cornhuskers, was published in 1916. “From the beginning, Sandburg the poet gave a powerful voice to the ‘people – the mob – the crowd – the mass’… He was quickly established as the poet of the American people, pleading their cause; reciting their songs, stories, and proverbs; celebrating their spirit and their vernacular; and commemorating the watershed experiences of their shared national life.”
In retrospect, it was fitting that Lincoln and Sandburg would find one another. His epic two-part, six-volume biography of Lincoln began as a commission for a juvenile biography and became instead among the most monumental and acclaimed biographies of America’s 16th President.
In addition to his Pulitzers (1919, 1940, 1951), Sandburg’s long catalogue of accolades included the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1964), the Robert Frost Medal (1952) for lifetime achievement in poetry, election to the American Society of Arts and Letters, a bevy of honorary doctorates, the National Institute of Arts and Letters Gold Medal (1952), and an invitation to address a joint session of Congress (in 1959, for Lincoln’s 150th birthday). Sandburg’s 1967 own memorial ceremony was held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial.
References: Heise, The Sandburg Shelf; ANB. Item #008571
Price: $500.00