Sherwood Anderson

Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941), American author, poet, playwright, essayist, and newspaper editor, wrote Winesburg, Ohio (1919), "The Book of the Grotesque". A collection of excellent examples of the short story genre and set in small town America, the stories are loosely connected by journalist George Willard writing of the sometimes "grotesque" sides of the human condition including poverty, marginalisation, love and romance. Many of Anderson's contributions to American Literature reflect his own struggles between the material and spiritual worlds as husband, father, author, and businessman and also cover issues as wide-ranging from labour conditions to marriage.

Sherwood Anderson was born on 13 September 1876 in Camden, Ohio to parents Irwin McClain Anderson and Emma Jane Smith. After many years during which the family traveled for Irwin to find work and Sherwood only periodically attending school, he moved by himself to Chicago, Illinois. He attended night school and worked various jobs including farm laborer, factory hand, and newsboy. He was a successful ad copywriter and served in the Spanish American War (1898-9).