Introduction


Sherwood Anderson

Although he enjoyed considerable success both critically and financially, it was not until Sherwood Anderson was 40 years old that his first work, Windy McPherson’s Son (1916), was published. Up until then, Anderson had made his mark in the business world, but after a nervous breakdown, he quit his job to pursue a literary career full-time. Winesburg, Ohio (1919) remains his best-known and most admired novel. A loose collection of overlapping anecdotes about small town life in the nineteenth century, Winesburg is an unflinching consideration of individuals in pursuit of the elusive American Dream. Maybe trying to make up for lost time, Anderson also wrote four other novels as well as a number of short stories, plays, and editorials before he died in 1941 at the age of 65.

Essential Facts

  1. Anderson had a very spotty education as a child as his parents were forced to move frequently to find work.
  2. After moving to Chicago on his own as a young teen, Anderson made ends meet by working as a farm hand and in factories. Between 1888 and 1899, he served in the Spanish-American War.
  3. Sherwood Anderson founded the company Anderson Manufacturing, whose claim to fame was a top-selling product called “Roof-Fix.”
  4. Anderson was instrumental in getting both William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway published.
  5. Anderson’s gravestone reads: “Life not death is the greatest adventure.”