Perry Miller Adato's first attempt to combine documentary techniques with dramatic re-enactment. The film uses actor John Cullum both as himself and to play the young Sandburg in short dramatic sequences. In search of Sandburg, Cullum travels to the poet's native home, Galesburg, Illinois speaking with close friends and family of the writer. Through a remarkable recently discovered trove of period photographs of Galesburg, the small-town America of Sandburg's childhood - the horse carriages, the ice-man delivering ice, a Fourth of July celebration - is revived in vivid detail.

Cast

John Cullum

Carl Sandburg

Frances Conroy

Mother / Lilian Steichen

Michael Higgins

Father / Hobo

Peter Michael Goetz

Carl Sandburg

Self (voice) (archive footage)