Bob Dylan Left a Meeting With Carl Sandburg ‘Hurt’ and ‘Annoyed’
In the 1960s, Bob Dylan sought out a number of his influences, including musician Woody Guthrie and poet Carl Sandburg. With both men, Dylan arrived at their homes unannounced. While he formed a relationship with Guthrie, he only briefly met with Sandburg. He left their meeting hurt and frustrated that Sandburg hadn’t recognized him.
Bob Dylan sought out Carl Sandburg
In the early 1960s, Dylan was on a road trip with friends when he decided to seek out Sandburg. He hadn’t been invited, so he had to seek out the poet’s home based on a vague notion of where he lived. When the group arrived in Flat Rock, North Carolina, Dylan asked residents for directions.
“Don’t know about no poet,” a local man told them, Anthony Scaduto wrote in Bob Dylan: An Intimate Biography (via Rolling Stone). “There’s a Sandburg has a goat farm. Wrote a book on Lincoln. Little guy. Littler than you, even. If that’s the one, take this road two miles up there, turn left after the little bridge, can’t miss it if you’re sober.”
Dylan and his friends knocked on Sandburg’s door where the bemused poet met them.
“‘You’re Carl Sandburg,’ Dylan said, not asking. ‘I’m Bob Dylan. I’m a poet, too.’ ‘How nice,’ Sandburg said, his smile saying another kid who wants to be a poet. But he tried to be gracious and said, ‘Come, sit a while.’ Mrs. Sandburg joined them, smiling but not saying anything.”
Bob Dylan was upset that Carl Sandburg didn’t know who he was
While inside, Dylan did most of the talking.
“‘I’ve written some songs, Mr. Sandburg,’ Dylan said. ‘I know Woody Guthrie, he’s very sick in a hospital, he talked about you a lot. Got some songs here I’d appreciate you listening to.’ He handed Sandburg one of the albums and the poet took it and said, ‘That’s wonderful,’ but it was clear he was simply being polite,” Scaduto wrote. “They chatted awhile, Dylan rambling on about folk music, and his own songs and poems, and subtly telling Sandburg he was a young poet and Sandburg should recognize him because he recognized Sandburg as an older poet. And Sandburg smiled at this scruffy kid promoting his album, hyping himself as a poet, Sandburg polite but not particularly interested.”
After a brief conversation, Dylan left. Scaduto said he seemed noticeably disappointed by the fact that Sandburg didn’t recognize him.
“After about ten minutes Dylan said, ‘Well, gotta go. Nice meeting you,’ and he turned and skipped down the steps and into the car,” he wrote. “His entourage piled in after him and they drove off, quickly, Dylan slouching down in the front seat, very quiet, staring straight ahead. Someone handed him a joint and he puffed deeply and said nothing. He was obviously annoyed at his encounter with Sandburg, hurt that the poet had never heard of him.”
He reacted similarly to a meeting with Guthrie
At this time in his life, Dylan was used to spending time with people who admired him. People had begun to describe him as a genius even this early in his career, so he got used to praise. He could even get away with being openly cruel to his friends because no one would stand up to him. Because of this, the bland politeness Sandburg greeted him with may have stung.
Dylan also may have felt disappointed while meeting one of the artists he admired. When he met Guthrie, he found that he was disappointed the encounter hadn’t gone as expected.
“But I couldn’t confess to him,” Dylan told The New Yorker in 1964. “It was silly. I did go and talk with him — as much as he could talk — and the talking helped. But basically he wasn’t able to help me at all. I finally realized that. So Woody was my last idol.”
While he may not have considered Sandburg an idol, he likely had expectations for how the conversation would go. When they didn’t match up with the reality of their meeting, Dylan left feeling disappointed.
