“The fruition of the year had come and the night should have been fine with a moon in the sky and the crisp sharp promise of frost in the air, but it wasnt that way. It rained and little puddles of water shone under the street lamps on Main Street. In the woods in the darkness beyond the Fair Ground water dripped from the black trees.” ― Sherwood Anderson, Winesburg, Ohio September 13, 2014: Today is the birthday of author Sherwood Anderson (1876), born in Camden, Ohio. In high school, Sherwood Anderson was my favorite author. I found an old paperback copy of Winesburg, Ohio in my dad’s bookcase and read it over and over again. I still have that book. The pages are brown and crumbling, the spine is a bit ragged, but that doesn’t take away from my enjoyment of this collection of short stories. It recalls reading in bed under the covers in early spring while rain beat against my windowpane, leaving me to wonder what kind of real life dramas were being played out in the dark of night beyond the glow of the yellow street light as the season changed. He became a writer in 1912, after suffering a nervous breakdown and wandering around Cleveland for four days. His prose style was direct and unpretentious, and he was one of the first authors to incorporate the modern psychological theories of Freud into his work. He was a major influence on the generation of American writers that followed him, including Hemingway and Faulkner, although they both eventually turned against him. Anderson encouraged Faulkner in his writing aspirations, and he who wrote young Hemingway a letter of introduction to take with him to Paris, helping put him in touch with Stein and other American ex-pats. For her part, Stein called Anderson a much more original writer than Hemingway. Anderson is best known for his short-story cycle Winesburg, Ohio (1919), a portrait of life in a small Midwestern town. He also wrote a best-selling novel, Dark Laughter (1925). “Dare to be strong and courageous. That is the road. Venture anything.” ― Sherwood Anderson
Posted on: Sun, 14 Sep 2014 00:31:52 +0000
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