Rootabaga Stories was published by Harcourt, Brace in 1922, illustrated by Maud and Miska Petersham. Sandburg wrote them for his three daughters, dissatisfied with the European fairy tales that dominated children’s literature: “I wanted something more American — no kings, no queens, no castles.”
The stories are set in the Rootabaga Country — a land reached by railroad across “where the railroad tracks run off into the blue sky.” Its geography is American: prairies, corn fields, small towns with names like the Village of Liver-and-Onions and the Village of Cream Puffs. Its characters are American archetypes transformed by fantasy: the Potato Face Blind Man, the Blue Fox, the White Horse Girl and the Blue Wind Boy.
The language is Sandburg’s signature contribution: rhythmic, repetitive, built on the patterns of oral storytelling and folk speech. “The Wedding Procession of the Rag Doll and the Broom Handle and Who Was in It” — the opening story — establishes the method: a parade of impossible characters described with the accumulative energy of a tall tale.
Collecting Rootabaga Stories
First edition (Harcourt, Brace, New York, 1922): Boards with dust jacket. Illustrated by Maud and Miska Petersham.
Market values:
- First edition, fine in jacket: $200–$500
- Very good in jacket: $80–$200
- Without jacket: $30–$80