Golden and Sandburg tout ‘a young fellow from Boston’

“By the end of the 1960 campaign Golden had made more than 50 speeches supporting a Kennedy presidency. When speaking to Jewish audiences in California, Golden was joined by Carl Sandburg, in Hollywood at the time serving as a consultant on a film. The two men on the stump together were a bit of genius.

” ‘I played the impresario by keeping him in the wings,’ Golden explained. He introduced his friend with a flourish: ‘I brought you a bonus — Carl Sandburg!’ Sandburg usually drew a standing ovation. The cheers would break out anew when the older man [Sandburg] paused and — as if he had just thought of the phrase — declared, ‘We are just a couple of North Carolina boys plugging for a young fellow from Boston who will make us a good president.’ ”

— From “Carolina Israelite: How Harry Golden Made Us Care about Jews, the South, and Civil Rights” by Kimberly Marlowe Hartnett (2015)

 

Remembering a Minnesotan’s Miscellany mentions

Excuse our immodesty, but surely Bob Dylan’s appearances over the years in North Carolina Miscellany played a small part in bringing him to the attention of the Swedish Academy:

— On his view of Billy Graham as a rock ‘n’ roll model

— On his performance in Charlotte during Watergate

— On his debt to Thomas Wolfe

— On his visits to Carl Sandburg and from Bland Simpson

If only he could’ve waited for Love Valley before going electric….

 

Sandburg takes final bow, finds Miss America waiting

On this day in 1962: Carl Sandburg, age 84, makes his final public performance, reading poetry, singing and playing the guitar at Flat Rock Playhouse. To cap off the evening he waltzes in the wings with Maria Beale Fletcher of Asheville, who has just finished her year as Miss America.

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When Bland met Bob… and when Bob met Carl ….

“Sara Dylan answered the door, gave me a blank look, and closed the door. About two minutes later Bob Dylan himself appeared and stepped out onto the small porched entry. He wore blue jeans, a white shirt buttoned all the way up and a black leather vest, and he was very friendly and relaxed.

” ‘Bland. What kind of name is that?’ ”

— From “Christmas With Dylan: A true-life pilgrimage” by Bland Simpson in Creative Loafing (Dec. 15, 2004)

I don’t know which I appreciate more about “Christmas With Dylan” — its unforgettable, out-of-left-field last line or its serendipitous parallel with Dylan’s own youthful pilgrimage:

“On the porch was Mrs. Lillian Sandburg. She didn’t seem startled. …. Dylan announced: ‘I am a poet. My name is Robert Dylan, and I would like to see Mr. Sandburg.’ She disappeared into the house….Finally, the poet appeared, a genial, slow-moving man …. He wore an old plaid wool shirt, baggy trousers and a green eye-shade over shell-rimmed glasses….Sandburg: ‘You look like you are ready for anything….’ ”

— From “No Direction Home: The Life And Music Of Bob Dylan” by Robert Shelton (2011)

 

Illini find 30 grand goes long way in Flat Rock

“The University of Illinois picked up a good bargain for $30,000: Illinois-born Poet Carl Sandberg’s private library, now housed at Sandburg’s North Carolina goat farm.
“Items: reams of Lincolniana (including the manuscripts of three volumes of Sandburg’s works on Lincoln), revised manuscripts of Sandburg’s Complete Poems and his yet unpublished Song Bag, Sandburg’s correspondence with a galaxy of fellow poets, as well as with such letter writers as Evangelist Billy Sunday and Franklin D. Roosevelt.”

— From Time magazine, Jan. 23, 1956

Link dump: Mind-reading from 150 years away

— What was his great-great-great grandfather thinking?

— A play about Harriet Jacobs, a film about Carl Sandburg.

— Death noted: Clyde King, whose long baseball career began with an overnight transformation from Tar Heel to Brooklyn Dodger.

— Roadside marker in Fayetteville is state’s first to  recognize a Muslim.

Lost Colony researcher‘s  “two drops of Croatoan blood… have boiled over.”