Carl Sandburg (1878-1967) was a poet, historian, novelist, and folklorist who won three Pulitzer Prizes, two for his poetry and a third for his biography of Abraham Lincoln.

Paul Berman is the author of several books, including The Flight of the Intellectuals. His essays on poets and poetry have appeared in The Nation, The New Republic, The New York Times Book Review, The New Yorker, Parnassus, and elsewhere.