Carl August Sandburg was bom on January 6, 1878, in Galesburg, Illinois. His parents, August and Clara Sandburg, were Swedish immigrants who never learned to write. Carl left school after the eighth grade and held numerous odd jobs, including those of newspaper carrier, custodian, milk delivery boy, pharmacist's assistant, and barbershop shoeshine boy. At age nineteen, he decided to be a hobo, riding on railroad boxcars to Iowa, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. The following year, he returned to Galesburg and worked as an apprentice house painter and then enlisted in the Illinois Volunteers, serving as a private in Puerto Rico during the Spanish-American War.

After returning from the war, Sandburg enrolled as a special student at Lombard College in Galesburg, where he served as editor-in-chief of the Lombard Review and reporter for the Galesburg Evening Mail While a student, he also worked as a fireman...