(1878 – 1974) Poet of Swedish American heritage who celebrated the Midwest as an American heartland. Popular for his lyrical images of modern America and the common person, his critical reputation was more uneven. His poems were interwoven with his rural upbringing, life on the road and his years working with newspapers in Chicago, IL. He also won a Pulitzer Prize for his monumental biography of Abraham Lincoln (1926, 1939).