Helga Sandburg was born in Maywood, Illinois, spent most of her early
years in Harbert, Michigan, around the lake bend, ninety miles from
Chicago. As a youngster, she was curious about the ways of the semi-wild
country surrounding her isolated home. She mounted butterfly and leaf
collections, kept a bird-watcher’s notebook, taught her five dogs to
pull a sled over the snow-covered sand dunes of Lake Michigan’s shore,
and trained her own horses. In her father’s house, she saw pass the
great literary figures of the midwest. She served as secretary to the
poet for many years and became steeped in the tradition of American
folkway and song. _The Wheel of Earth_ casts a glance back to the
vanishing lore of the prairie farmlands.
In 1946 Miss Sandburg’s family moved to the Great Smokies of western
Carolina. There she renewed her childhood interest in animals, raising
calves, colts, dogs, goats, cats, varieties of rabbits, Peruvian cavies,
parakeets, and hooded rats. Her animal collection was reduced to two
Siamese cats and one Doberman Pinscher when she took up residence six
years ago in Falls Church, Virginia. For two years she was employed
nearby at the Library of Congress. Currently she is at work on her
second novel. She has a son of sixteen and a daughter of fourteen. She
is the wife of Arthur D. Golby, Assistant Professor of English at The
American University in Washington, D. C.