Complete Poems, a signed first edition of the work that won Sandburg his second Pulitzer Prize for Poetry

This is a jacketed and signed first edition, first printing. Sandburg signed "Carl Sandburg" in blue ink on the blank recto preceding the half title. This original compilation of Sandburg’s complete poems won him his second Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1951. Condition approaches near fine in a very good plus dust jacket. So marked "first edition" on the title page verso, this copy is further confirmed by a dot in the center of the "o" in "one" on page 34, line 15. The blue cloth binding with gilt-stamped spine and Sandburg’s facsimile signature blind-stamped on the front cover is clean, bright, tight, and square, with sharp corners. We note only trivial shelf wear to the bottom edges and minor wrinkling to the spine ends. The contents, bound with blue and white head and tail bands, yellow-stained top edges, and deckled fore edges, are clean and complete with no previous ownership marks and no spotting. The yellow topstain retains uniform, unfaded hue. There is transfer browning to the front endpapers, as if from clippings or documents once laid in but now absent. Modest age-toning seems substantially confined to the otherwise clean fore edges. The dust jacket is unclipped, the original "$6.00" upper front flap price intact, and entirely complete, with no loss or tears. Moreover, the jacket is clean and unfaded. Light wear is substantially confined to extremities, with light scuffing to the upper front flap fold, upper rear joint, and the center of the upper spine panel. The jacket is protected beneath a clear, removable, archival cover."Elmer Gertz, writing in response to a criticism of the book by William Carlos Williams, commented: ‘Sandburg has captured the sounds, the sense, the bearings of the U.S.A. That is why he not only sings the people but is sung by them’." A new, updated edition of the Complete Poems was issued in 1969.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, and his third and last for this book), 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.…