Sherwood Anderson (September 13, 1876 – March 8, 1941) was an American writer. He is most famous for his book Winesburg, Ohio. Anderson is said to have had a big influence on some of the most famous American writers such as Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner and John Steinbeck.

Personal Life

Anderson was born in Camden, Ohio. He was the third of seven children. Anderson’s father, Erwin Anderson, had a business which failed. After this, the Anderson family had to move house often, finally settling in Clyde, Ohio. Erwin Anderson began drinking heavily and died in 1895. Sherwood Anderson took a number of jobs to help support his family and he left school at the age of 14.

Anderson moved to Chicago. He worked there until just before 1900, when he signed up for the United States Army. In 1900, Anderson went to Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. He eventually went back to Chicago to take up a writing job.

In 1904, he married Cornelia Lane. Lane came from a rich family in Ohio. They lived in Cleveland, Ohio and then in Elyria, Ohio. Anderson had three children and ran a number of businesses.

In November 1912, Anderson had a mental breakdown. He left his wife and three children and decided to become a creative writer. He moved back to Chicago, but took a job in advertising and publishing. Anderson divorced Cornelia in 1916 and got married to Tennessee Mitchell.

In 1916, Anderson’s first book, Windy McPherson’s Son, was released. In 1919, Anderson’s most famous book, Winesburg, Ohio, was released. Winesburg, Ohio was a collection of short stories about life in a town in Ohio.

In 1922, Anderson divorced Tennessee Mitchell. He got married again in 1924, to Elizabeth Prall. This marriage did not last either. Anderson married again in the late 1920s – this time to Eleanor Copenhaver. 

Anderson died in Panama on the 8th March, 1941, at the age of 64. He was buried in Marion, Virginia. The writing on his gravestone reads "Life, Not Death, is the Great Adventure."

Works

 Windy McPherson's Son, (1916, novel)
 Marching Men, (1917, novel)
 Winesburg, Ohio, (1919, novel)
 Poor White, (1920, novel)
 Triumph of the Egg, (1921, short stories)
 Many Marriages, (1923, novel)
 Horses and Men, (1923, short stories)
 A Story-Teller's Story, (1924, semi-autobiographical novel)
 Sherwood Anderson's Memoirs, (1924, memoirs)
 An Exhibition of Paintings By Alfred H. Maurer, (1924, non-fiction)
 Dark Laughter, (1925, novel)
 A Meeting South, (1925, novel)
 Modern Writer, (1925, non-fiction)
 Tar: A Midwest Childhood, (1926, semi-autobiographical novel)
 Sherwood Anderson's Notebook, (1926, memoirs)
 Hello Towns, (1929, short stories)
 Alice: The Lost Novel, (1929, novel)
 Onto Being Published, (1930, non-fiction)
 Beyond Desire, (1932, novel)
 Death in the Woods, (1933, essays)
 Puzzled America, (1935, essays)
 Kit Brandon, (1936, novel)
 Dreiser: A Biography, (1936, non-fiction)
 Winesburg and Others, (1937, play)
 Home Town, (1940, novel)
 San Francisco at Christmas, (1940, memoirs)
 Lives of Animals, (1966, novel)
 Return to Winesburg, Ohio, (1967, essays)
 The Memoirs of Sherwood Anderson, (1968, memoirs)
 No Swank, (1970, novel)
 Perhaps Women, (1970, novel)
 The Buck Fever Papers, (1971, essays)
 Ten Short Plays, (1972, plays)
 Sherwood Anderson and Gertrude Stein: Correspondence and Personal Essays, (1972, essays)
 Nearer the Grass Roots, (1976, novel)
 The Writer at His Craft, (1978, non-fiction)
 Paul Rosenfeld: Voyager in the Arts, (1978, nonfiction)
 The Teller's Tale, (1982, novel)
 Selected Letters: 1916 – 1933, (1984, letters)
 Writer's Diary: 1936–1941, (1987, memoir)
 Early Writings of Sherwood Anderson, (1989, short stories)
 Love Letters to Eleanor Copenhaver Anderson, (1990, letters)
 The Selected Short Stories of Sherwood Anderson, (1995, short stories)
 Southern Odyssey: Selected Writings By Sherwood Anderson, (1998, short stories)

Other websites

 http://www.gradesaver.com/author/sherwood-anderson/

Writers from Ohio
1876 births
1941 deaths