A 1960s study

Card no 339 - Martine

 

A close examination of this card shows that the 'current' reference work to the right of the clock is from 1960.  The Remington (not an Underwood this time) typewriter and French style lamp are earlier but the phone and (Polaroid?) camera are about right for that era. Nearly all the books on the shelf are by Carl Sanburg.

Carl Sandburg (January 6, 1878 – July 22, 1967) was an American writer and editor, best known for his poetry. He was the recipient of three Pulitzer Prizes: two for his poetry and another for his biography of Abraham Lincoln. H. L. Mencken called Sandburg "indubitably an American in every pulse-beat".

I thought I had been really clever and traced where the photograph was taken  - Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site, located near Hendersonville in the village of Flat Rock, North Carolina.  That site preserves Connemara Farms where Sandburg and his family moved in 1945 for the peace and solitude required for his writing and the more than30 acres (120,000 m2) of pastureland required for his wife, Lilian, to raise her champion dairy goats. Sandburg spent the last twenty-two years of his life on this farm and published more than a third of his works while he resided here.

However, a search of that site led me to this photo which shows his study with its more modern typewriter presumably showing how he left it in 1967.  Still, even though I was wrong it was a fun search and, as always, I had learned things.