Anderson, Sherwood

Anderson, Sherwood
born Sept. 13, 1876, Camden, Ohio, U.S.
died March 8, 1941, Colon, Pan.

U.S. author.

Anderson was irregularly schooled. Having married, he abruptly left his family and business career to become a writer in Chicago. Winesburg, Ohio (1919), a collection of interrelated sketches and tales about the obscure lives of the citizens of a small town, was his first mature book and made his reputation. His short stories were collected in The Triumph of the Egg (1921), Horses and Men (1923), and Death in the Woods (1933). His prose style, based on everyday speech and influenced by the experimental writing of Gertrude Stein, in turn influenced such writers as Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner.

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▪ American author
born Sept. 13, 1876, Camden, Ohio, U.S.
died March 8, 1941, Colon, Panama

      author who strongly influenced American writing between World Wars I and II, particularly the technique of the short story. His writing had an impact on such notable writers as Ernest Hemingway (Hemingway, Ernest) and William Faulkner (Faulkner, William), both of whom owe the first publication of their books to his efforts. His prose style, based on everyday speech and derived from the experimental writing of Gertrude Stein, was markedly influential on the early Hemingway—who parodied it cruelly in Torrents of Spring (1926) to make a clean break and become his own man.

      One of seven children of a day labourer, Anderson attended school intermittently as a youth in Clyde, Ohio, and worked as a newsboy, house painter, farmhand, and racetrack helper. After a year at Wittenberg Academy, a preparatory school in Springfield, Ohio, he worked as an advertising writer in Chicago until 1906, when he went back to Ohio and for the next six years sought—without success—to prosper as a businessman while writing fiction in his spare time. A paint manufacturer in Elyria, Ohio, he left his office abruptly one day in 1912 and wandered off, turning up four days later in Cleveland, disheveled and mentally distraught. He later said he staged this episode to get away from the business world and devote himself to literature.

      Anderson went back to his advertising job in Chicago and remained there until he began to earn enough from his published work to quit. Encouraged by Dreiser (Dreiser, Theodore), Floyd Dell (Dell, Floyd), Carl Sandburg, and Ben Hecht—leaders of the Chicago literary movement—he began to contribute experimental verse and short fiction to The Little Review, The Masses, the Seven Arts, and Poetry. Dell and Dreiser arranged the publication of his first two novels, Windy McPherson's Son (1916; rev. 1921) and Marching Men (1917), both written while he was still a manufacturer. Winesburg, Ohio (1919) was his first mature book and made his reputation as an author. Its interrelated short sketches and tales are told by a newspaper reporter-narrator who is as emotionally stunted in some ways as the people he describes. His novels include Many Marriages (1923), which stresses the need for sexual fulfillment; Dark Laughter (1925), which values the “primitive” over the civilized; and Beyond Desire (1932), a novel of Southern textile mill labour struggles.

      His best work is generally thought to be in his short stories, collected in Winesburg, Ohio, The Triumph of the Egg (1921), Horses and Men (1923), and Death in the Woods (1933). Also valued are the autobiographical sketches A Story Teller's Story (1924), Tar: A Midwest Childhood (1926), and the posthumous Memoirs (1942; critical edition 1969). A selection of his Letters appeared in 1953.

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Universalium. 2010.

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  • Anderson,Sherwood — Anderson, Sherwood. 1876 1941. American writer whose often autobiographical works include Winesburg, Ohio (1919). * * * …   Universalium

  • Anderson, Sherwood — ► (1876 1941) Novelista estadounidense, destacado representante del naturalismo. Principales obras: El hijo de Windy Mc Pherson (1916) y Winnesburg, Ohio (1919), la más lograda. * * * (13 sep. 1876, Camden, Ohio, EE.UU.–8 mar. 1941, Colón,… …   Enciclopedia Universal

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  • ANDERSON (S.) — ANDERSON SHERWOOD (1876 1941) Très peu connu en France, Sherwood Anderson a laissé une œuvre diverse et importante: une trentaine de volumes où alternent romans, nouvelles, poèmes en prose, reportages et autobiographies très libres, publiés entre …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Anderson — Anderson, Charles David Anderson, Lindsay Anderson, Philip Warren Anderson, Sherwood ► C. de E.U.A., en el estado de Indiana; 70 787 h (área metropolitana, 138 451 h). * * * (as used in expressions) Anderson, (James) Maxwell Anderson, Elizabeth… …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Sherwood — Sherwood, Robert Emmet * * * (as used in expressions) Anderson, Sherwood Isherwood, Christopher Sherwood, bosque de Sherwood, Robert E(mmet) …   Enciclopedia Universal

  • Anderson — (Sherwood) (1876 1941) auteur américain de romans et nouvelles (Winesburg en Ohio, 1919) …   Encyclopédie Universelle

  • Sherwood Anderson — Infobox Writer name = Sherwood Anderson birthname = caption = Anderson in 1933 birthdate = birth date|1876|9|13|mf=y birthplace = Camden, Ohio, United States deathdate = death date and age|1941|3|8|1876|9|13 deathplace = Panama occupation =… …   Wikipedia

  • Anderson — /an deuhr seuhn/, n. 1. Carl David, 1905 91, U.S. physicist: discoverer of the positron; Nobel prize 1936. 2. Dame Judith, 1898 1992, Australian actress in the U.S. 3. Marian, 1902 93, U.S. contralto. 4. Maxwell, 1888 1959, U.S. dramatist. 5.… …   Universalium

  • Sherwood Anderson — noun United States author whose works were frequently autobiographical (1876 1941) • Syn: ↑Anderson • Instance Hypernyms: ↑writer, ↑author * * * Sherwood Anderson [Sherwood Anderson …   Useful english dictionary

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