A Christmas Poem By Carl Sandburg: “Star Silver”

It’s been a long time since I’ve featured a poem here on buckeyemuse.com. I’m working on a series of posts about Sherwood Anderson in Elyria that began a couple of years ago along with some other material, but I’ve been wanting to do some shorter posts. Something I did occasionally in the early days of…

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May 22, 1868: The Reno Gang Makes Outlaw History

May 22, 1868. The darkness of the backcountry night has settled around a train stop where the Jefferson, Madison & Indianapolis train takes on wood and water. In this outpost near Marshfield, Indiana, seven men wait for the train. They lurk beneath trees or behind bushes. Frank Reno, the leader of the men, kneels down…

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President Lincoln: Master of American Prose

February 12 marks the birthday of President Abraham Lincoln, who is not only one of our greatest Presidents—perhaps the greatest American President—but one of the great leaders in world history. Lincoln is also arguably the greatest writer among the Presidents. All of our Presidents have left behind a body of writing, usually consisting of policy…

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Born on January 6: Wright Morris and Carl Sandburg

Two important writers from the Midwest were born on January 6: Carl Sandburg in 1878 and Wright Morris in 1910. Since Morris is the lesser known of the two, I will start with him. Wright Morris was born in Central City, Nebraska. His mother died within a week of his birth. His father was a…

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Remembering Vachel Lindsay

The Midwestern poet Nicholas Vachel Lindsay was born on November 10, 1879. He is best known today—and was in his own time–for his poetry, but also wrote film criticism and essays. He was a visual artist as well. Lindsay was born in Springfield, Illinois, the home of Abe Lincoln, and the image and memory of…

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