Carl Sandburg Home National Historic Site
1928 Little River Road
Flat Rock, NC 28731
Website: http://www.nps.gov/carl
Email: Go to "Contact Us" section of website
Phone: (828) 693-4178
Carl August Sandburg (1878 - 1967) was an American poet, novelist, journalist, historian, biographer, and folklorist. He was the recipient of two Pulitzer Prizes, one for his biography of Abraham Lincoln entitled Abraham Lincoln: The War Years, and one for The Complete Poems of Carl Sandburg.
Sandburg lived in this home, known as Connemara, from 1945 until his death in 1967. The house, which is accessible through guided tours, features 65,000 artifacts offering many insights into the lives of Sandburg and his family. Sandburg's wife, Lilian, sister of photographer Edward Steichen, kept an extensive goat herd on the 30 acres of pasture offered by the estate, and visitors can also learn about Mrs. Sandburg's dairy goat operation.
Galesburg, Illinois, Sandburg's birthplace, is home to the Carl Sandburg State Historic Site. For more information see, visit http://www.sandburg.org/ or http://www.illinoishistory.gov/hs/carl_sandburg.htm, or call: (309) 342-2361
Carl Sandburg has won two Pulitzers for his writing. He has written everything from poetry to American fairytales and folklore, thus keeping to his Swedish ancestry. His charming white farmhouse is set amongst the striking autumn trees of the woods. A tourist can hike the five miles of trails, relax by the tiny lakes and roam around the pastures and vegetable gardens. By taking a walk in the natural surroundings, one can see why Sandburg was inspired to write here. Also on the property is a dairy goat farm in the tradition of Sandburg's wife, since she raised champion dairy goats.
---
Flat Rock Playhouse
State Theatre of North Carolina
2661 Greenville Highway
Flat Rock, NC 28731
Website: http://flatrockplayhouse.org
Email: frp@flatrockplayhouse.org
Phone: (828) 693-0731
As the official state theater of North Carolina, the Flat Rock offers a variety of shows. Originally known as the "Vagabond Players," the theater troupe began performing in 1937, finally ending up at Flat Rock in 1952. Upcoming shows include: Kate Me, Kate (music by Cole Porter); Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967 movie version with Julie Andrews); and Sanders Family Christmas (sequel to Smoke on the Mountain). Tickets average around $30.
---
Thomas Wolfe Memorial
52 North Market Street
Asheville, NC 28801
Website: http://www.wolfememorial.com
Email: contactus@wolfememorial.com
Phone: (828) 253-8304
Thomas Wolfe (1900 - 1938) is known for writing lengthy novels in a unique style that blended poetic technique and evocative prose with autobiography. Only four of his works, including Look Homeward Angel (1929), were published before his death at 38 of tuberculosis of the brain. Wolfe had produced manuscripts for several very lengthy works, which were extensively edited to make them more commercially attractive. After his death, attempts were made to reassemble several of these manuscripts as Wolfe originally wrote them, and a number of Wolfe novels, dramatic works, and short stories were published after his death.
For ten years of his childhood, Wolfe lived in this Asheville, North Carolina boarding house known as the Old Kentucky Home, which was run by his mother, Julia. The boardinghouse features prominently in Wolfe's autobiographical Look Homeward Angel, and other Wolfe novels and short stories depict the lives of Asheville's residents, Julia Wolfe's boarders, and members of the Wolfe family. Although the boarding house was heavily damaged by a fire in 1998, it was successfully restored in 2004.
Visitors to Asheville can also see Wolfe's grave at Riverside Cemetery. The writer William Sydney Porter, who wrote under the name O. Henry, is also buried at Riverside. Thomas Wolfe is the famed author of Look Homeward, Angel. The Memorial is a visitor center where tourists can view artifacts from his New York City apartment, the family house and the stonecutting shop which his father ran. Guided tours of the Old Kentucky Home are available as well. The boarding house was ruined by a fire in 1998, but was successfully restored in 2004. This is where he stayed with his mother after being run out of town for his controversial book Look Homeward Angel.
Advertisement:
