A Closer Sandburg Connection

Last night I read Jonathan Franzen's curiously long essay "Lost in the Mail," about the problems of Chicago's postal service and in particular the disaster that is the Uptown Post Office (my post office). Don't be fooled by the lovely architecture and murals depicted here -- they only enhance the Kafkaeque experience of doing business there. Anyway, Franzen notes in the essay that Carl Sandburg lived in the neighborhood for a few years, at 4646 N. Hermitage Ave, which is just blocks from where I live now. Huh.