I’m reading Carl Sandburg’s childhood memoirs, Prairie-Town Boy.
Sandburg was born to poor Swedish immigrant parents in 1878.
The book was written in 1952.
Last night I was reading the chapter on the books he loved reading as a child.
The History of Napoleon Bonaparte and
Young Folks’ Cylopaedia of Persons and Places.
A series of history books by Charles Coffin.
Young Carl Sandburg loved many of the Coffin books,
especially one on the Revolutionary War.
But when he tried reading those written about the Civil War,
he found them dry.
Sandburg wrote:
". . . maybe it [Civil War] was so big he [Coffin] couldn’t get his head around it."
Wow.
I’m here to say it took me a while to wrap my head around
Carl Sandburg wrapping his head around
Charles Coffin and the Civil War he apparently couldn’t wrap his head around.
Tracy Abell 
Interesting. And I could see how that might hinder appreciation for something. Thanks for sharing this.
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I know this reply is WAY late but I wanted to just reiterate how odd it was to read the phrase “wrap his head around.” For some reason, I thought that was a more contemporary phrase/concept.
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That last sentence made me giggle, Tracy. (Maybe it’s because my head is stuffed with cotton today.) Hmm yes, wrapping our heads around the Civil War would be an undertaking indeed. And your post makes me feel like I need to go read up on not only the Civil War, but Carl Sandburg as well.
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My head hurts, just thinking about all this wrapping around and up and over.
Of course, I could take Lorraine’s sensible route–bone up on my history lessons and read more works by Carl Sandburg. But no! I’m going to just back out of this entry slowly, before I reveal my ignorance.
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No worries on backing away from the entry, Melodye. I wanted to make it hard to wrap your head around. HA!
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This is very tardy, Lorraine, but I hope your head has become unstuffed and that all cotton has left the “building.” I’m still working my way through his book and laughed last night as he described some man as “creepy.” That’s one of Zebu’s favorite descriptive words these days.
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My head hurts, just thinking about all this wrapping around and up and over.
Of course, I could take Lorraine’s sensible route–bone up on my history lessons and read more works by Carl Sandburg. But no! I’m going to just back out of this entry slowly, before I reveal my ignorance.
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