Good Morning America, one of very few copies of the limited edition signed by Sandburg printed throughout on blue paper.
New York: Crosby Gaige, 1928. First, limited, and signed edition. Hardcover. This is an unread copy of the exceptionally rare “blue paper” issue of the first and limited edition. Per the colophon, “eight hundred and eleven copies” were “printed on rag paper… each copy signed by the author”. The colophon credits design of the book to American typographer, book designer, and illustrator William Addison Dwiggins (1880-1956). Each copy was ink-stamped with a limitation number following the printed word “NUMBER” at the end of the colophon. A very few copies – speculated to be as few as ten but with this number unsubstantiated – were printed on blue-gray laid paper, distinctly different from the white “rag paper”. These blue paper copies were bound with gilt top edges and issued with no limitation number. The bindings are identical to the rest of the limited first edition.
Condition of this blue paper copy is very good. The binding remains square, tight, clean, and sharp-cornered, though with mild spine toning, a touch of fraying at the spine head, and minor flaking of the gilt decoration on the front and rear covers. The contents are unread, with uncut signatures throughout, and exceptional, with no soiling or spotting. Sandburg signed "Carl Sandburg" in green fountain pen on the half title recto. We note only a small, faint blemish to the upper right corner of the signed half title recto and some transfer browning to the front free endpaper recto from a bookplate affixed to the front pastedown. The bookplate is that of “David Eugene McFarlane” (1900-1973), whose name and that of Carl Sandburg appear to intersect through a rare, 1935 biographical publication titled Hand Holbein, written by the 16th century Dutch painter and biographer Carel van Mander, printed privately in 1935 for Eugene McFarlane, and featuring a foreword by Carl Sandburg.
Good Morning America was Sandburg’s sixth published collection of poetry, following the early retrospective Selected Poems (1926). Good Morning America’s collection of poems is prefaced by a list of 38 “Tentative (First Model) Definitions of Poetry” the last of which is: “Poetry is the capture of a picture, a song, or a flair, in a deliberate prism of words.” Sandburg’s list is perhaps as well-known, excerpted, and anthologized as any of the poems herein. Good Morning America’s best known piece is the titular poem, which opens the collection.
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, 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 addition to his Pulitzers (1919, 1940, 1951, one of these for his acclaimed biography of Abraham Lincoln), 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 #008788
Price: $850.00