Send us Fan Mail As the 111th anniversary of the Eastland disaster approaches, the podcast turns toward the writers, poets, artists, and witnesses who captured the tragedy in their own words. Their voices, once alive with urgency, have too often been pushed aside as the Eastland’s story has been retold, revised, and diluted over the years. This episode focuses on Carl Sandburg: poet, journalist, musician, biographer of Lincoln, chronicler of working people, and one of the fiercest literary voices to respond to the Eastland disaster. Sandburg responded to the tragedy with both prose and poetry. He wrote “The Eastland” in 1915, but it remained hidden until 1993, when it finally surfaced in Carl Sandburg: Billy Sunday and Other Poems, edited by George Hendrick and Willene Hendrick. The poem pulses with raw fury and unmistakable Sandburg grit. It does not simply mourn; it indicts. In this episode, I recount my discovery of Sandburg’s long-buried Eastland poem in the 1990s. I also explore what its absence from most Eastland platforms says about the shifting tides of public memory when curiosity fades and research stops. The episode also paints a fuller picture of Sandburg’s life: his Chicago years, his connection to Poetry magazine, his years as a socialist, his attention to labor and poverty, and his enduring fascination with death, democracy, and Abraham Lincoln. Next, I read a modified version of Sandburg’s “The Eastland.” After that, you’ll hear Sandburg himself reading “Cool Tombs,” a poem where presidents, celebrities, workers, and everyday people all share the same fate. The Eastland disaster was never just a number, especially since the full death toll may never be known with certainty. It was always about people with hopes, dreams, griefs, fears, and frustrations. Over time, the tragedy was commodified and branded. But before that, it was a catastrophe that ripped through families, neighborhoods, churches, workplaces, and immigrant communities for years afterward. Sandburg saw this clearly. His poem still smolders. Resources: Sandburg, Carl. “Looking ’Em Over.” The International Socialist Review 16, no. 3 (September 1915): 132–137. Carl Sandburg, “Cool Tombs,” on Carl Sandburg Reads the Poems of Carl Sandburg, Decca Records, DL 9039, 1957, LP recording, Internet Archive, accessed June 17, 2026. Sandburg, Carl. Billy Sunday and Other Poems. Edited and with an introduction by George Hendrick and Willene Hendrick. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Company, 1993 Poetry Foundation. “Carl Sandburg.” Poetry Foundation. Accessed June 17, 2026. https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/carl-sandburg. Sandburg, Carl. “The Eastland.” c. 1915. IDEALS, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Modern American City Verse, 1905–1925, John Timberman Newcomb. https://hdl.handle.net/2142/30232. Book website: https://www.flowerintheriver.com/Substack: https://nataliezett.substack.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/natalie-z-87092b15/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/zettnatalie/YouTube: Flower in the River - A Family Tale Finally Told - YouTubeMedium: Natalie Zett – MediumThe opening/closing song is Twilight by 8opusOther music. Artlist
