Sherwood Anderson
(1876–1941)

Sherwood Anderson was one of the most influential writers of the modern age. Born and raised in a small town in Ohio, Anderson used his boyhood observations and experiences as material for his unified collection of short stories, Winesburg Ohio (1919). In this work, Anderson presents a portrait of small town life that is strikingly different from those portraits presented in most earlier works of literature. He captures the sense of isolation and despair hidden beneath the surface of the characters' seemingly uneventful lives. He also uses simple, everyday language to capture the true flavor of his characters—a technique that influenced such later twentieth-century writers as Ernest Hemingway. Although Anderson's reputation rests mainly on this single work, he also published several other books, including Windy McPherson's Sons (1916), Triumph of the Egg (1921), Horses and Men (1923), and Death in the Woods and Other Stories (1933).

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