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#11-1 September 2024
Carl Sandburg's Birthplace Cottage
Sandburg’s Canine Friends in Illinois:
By John W. Quinley
Dear Readers,,
Carl and Paula Sandburg lived in
rented spaces across Wisconsin during the first years of their marriage. In
1916, they borrowed $500 for a down payment on a house in suburban Maywood,
Illinois. The house had a yard, space for a garden and fruit trees, and marked
the arrival of a family dog. This first pet, an Irish Setter named Dan, was a
gift from the wife of a literary friend and dog breeder, Mrs. William Vaughn
Moody. Sandburg swore that Dan had “as immortal a soul as any of us: he’s a
marvelous listener.” The poem “Dan” in Smoke
and Steel was written about him.
After losing Dan a few years later, Sandburg wrote Mrs.
Moody, “If you get hold of a setter, sheep dog, collie, German police dog,
mastiff, Danish bloodhound, or any dog spotted or unspotted that growls at
strangers and is good to children—bring him along.” Dan’s replacement named
Bimbo was tragically run over by a car near the Sandburg’s second home in nearby
Elmhurst, Illinois. Sandburg liked to write upstairs and needed quiet to
concentrate. He recalls that when, on the floor below, the barking of their
newest dog, Pooch, joined the squeals of laughter from the three Sandburg girls,
he stamped on the floorboards and yelled “Pipe down!” This tactic did reduce the
length of Pooch’s vocal performance. Sandburg noted, however, that he, “will
never learn to stop his passionate enjoyment of scaring people by rushing them
with his terrible eyes and teeth.” Sandburg speculated that Pooch, “must have
seen himself sometime in a magnifying mirror so that he imagines he is six or
seven dogs in one.” Lilla Perry, author of
My Friend Carl Sandburg,
shares that another dog acquired in Elmhurst had an interesting change of name,
from "Prince" to "Prints". Sandburg felt that with a dog called Prince “we wouldn’t
be quite at home with royalty.” He reasoned that changing the name to Prints was
more appropriate for an aspiring newspaper reporter and poet who desired to be
in print.
Thanks for reading,
John Quinley is the author of
Discovering Carl
Sandburg: The Eclectic Life of an American Icon and is a former docent at
the Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site in Flat Rock, North Carolina.
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