Today's Broadcast

Topic: Carl Sandburg

Can you name the American who was born on this date in 1878, who left high school after eighth grade, and who went on to practice journalism, earn a Grammy, two Pulitzers (one for poetry, and one for a biography of Abraham Lincoln), and who, after his death, had an Amtrak train route named for him?

Here's a hint: he was also a hobo and a socialist, and if his name is coming into your consciousness on little cat feet, you can thank today's birthday boy for giving poetry that memorable phrasing. Has the fog cleared? The name we are looking for is Carl Sandburg,  the poet who gave us the six lines: Fog comes/on little cat feet./It sits looking/over harbor and city/on silent haunches/and then moves on.

Today we remember Sandburg for his contribution to children's literature: Rootabaga Stories, Rootabaga Pigeons, and More Rootabaga Stories. Sandburg's version of American fairytales featured corn fairies, skyscrapers, and railroads. He spelled rootabaga "roota", not "ruta", but whichever way you spell it, rutabaga names the turnip familiar to Sandburg from his Swedish immigrant parents. The large yellowish root vegetable (whose name comes from a Swedish dialect term meaning "root bag") sustained plenty of Midwestern Americans over long winters, and Sandburg's fantastic and whimsical tales have done the same for generations of children.

Questions or comments? Write us at wftw@aol.com Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and Web sites including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.