Sherwood
Anderson is one of the most influential Midwestern authors of the 20th century.
His most famous work is Winesburg, Ohio. This book is a collection
of short stories centered around one small Midwestern town that reveals the
residents' dark secrets, lost dreams, and misfortunes through their own eyes.
The book is one of the first novels to shatter the peaceful image of rural
life in the Midwest and because of this content, Winesburg, Ohio
was quite controversial when it was released. Anderson’s raw exploration
of the insecurities and inadequacies that are felt in small Midwestern towns
was so realistic that the citizen’s of Anderson’s hometown, Clyde,
Ohio were outraged, but they were not the only ones. The book allowed
readers everywhere to get a glimpse of the truth of rural America and it was
not pretty. It was a way for Sherwood Anderson to express his frustrations
and disappointment of his own experience with small town life. Anderson’s
work today is celebrated, not only because of his unique literary technique,
but also because of the veracity that he revealed about Midwestern small town
life.
The
purpose of this site is to explore some of the many notions of Midwestern
life that Sherwood Anderson depicted in Winesburg, Ohio and examine
the impact of those Midwestern characteristics on the literary elements in
Anderson’s most infamous work. In addition to investigating Anderson’s
biography in relation to Winesburg, Ohio, this website will also
consider the significance of Sherwood Anderson’s work on some other
great American authors, William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway. There are almost
40 published works by Anderson.