Publisher's Synopsis
Winesburg, Ohio (full title: Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small-Town Life) is a 1919 short story cycle by the American author Sherwood Anderson. The work is structured around the life of protagonist George Willard, from the time he was a child to his growing independence and ultimate abandonment of Winesburg as a young man. It is set in the fictional town of Winesburg, Ohio (not to be confused with the actual Winesburg, Ohio), which is loosely based on Anderson's childhood memories of Clyde, Ohio.
What inspired Sherwood Anderson writing?
He started publishing stories that are short in small magazines, such as the Little Review and the Masses. Anderson was influenced by modernist writers, like his friend Gertrude Stein; in Winesburg, his laconic, Ohio, searching prose subtly evokes the alienation of small town life.
What was Sherwood Anderson's influence on American literature?
The simplicity of the prose style of his and the choice of his of subject matter influenced many writers who followed him, most notably Faulkner and Hemingway, but these writers tended to belittle the contribution of his to literature as well as to the own work of theirs. Anderson died of peritonitis en route to South America on a goodwill trip.
