Niven penelope carl sandburg biography of lincoln
Niven penelope carl sandburg biography of lincoln
Niven penelope carl sandburg biography of lincoln and wife...
She was a writer of lives.
Penelope Niven (1939-2014) was born in Waxhaw, North Carolina, to Olin Niven, a postal inspector, and Eleanor Niven, a teacher.
When she was five years old, she stood between her parents in the Methodist Church, holding her own hymnal, pretending she could read the words of a song she knew by heart.
“Suddenly,” she once said, “somewhere along the third verse, I knew with absolute certainty that someday soon, I would be able to read.
Then, I told myself, I would become a writer.”
She was an Indiana High School English teacher, nearing the age of forty, when she began writing a biography of Carl Sandburg. She had never written a book.
Niven penelope carl sandburg biography of lincoln wikipedia
She didn’t have a PhD in literature and wasn’t even that familiar with Sandburg’s work. She entered her forties loving her life, but taking stock: “Not very long ago I was five and dreaming about being a writer,” she said.
“Before long I’ll be eighty, and f