Winesburg, Ohio

by Anderson, Sherwood; Cowley, Malcolm

• ISBN13: 9780140186550
• ISBN10: 0140186557
• Edition: Revised
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1992-09-01
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

Winesburg, Ohio (1919) is Sherwood Anderson's masterpiece, a cycle of short stories concerning life in a small town at the end of the nineteenth century. At the center is George Willard, a young reporter who becomes the confidant of the town's solitary figures. Anderson's stories influenced countless American writers including Hemingway, Faulkner, Updike, Oates and Carver. This new edition corrects errors made in earlier editions and takes into account major criticism and textual scholarship of the last several decades.

Author Biography

Born in 1876, Sherwood Anderson grew up in a small town in Ohio—an experience that was the basis of his greatest achievements as a writer. He served in the Spanish-American War, worked as an advertising man, and managed an Ohio paint factory before abandoning both job and family to embark on a literary career in Chicago. His first novel, Windy McPherson's Son, was published in 1916; his second, Marching Men, a characteristic study of the individual in conflict with industrial society, appeared in 1917. But it is Winesburg, Ohio (1919), with its disillusioned view of small-town lives, that is generally considered his masterpiece. Later novels—Poor White, Many Marriages, and Dark Laughter—continued to depict the spiritual poverty of the machine age. Anderson died in 1941.

Malcolm Cowley (1898–1989) a leadiing literary figure of his time, wrote numerous books of literary criticism, essays, and poetry.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. ix
The Tales and the Persons
The Book of the Grotesque	p. 3
Hands-concerning Wing Biddlebaum	p. 8
Paper Pills-concerning Doctor Reefy	p. 16
Mother-concerning Elizabeth Willard	p. 21
The Philosopher-concerning Doctor Parcival	p. 31
Nobody Knows-concerning Louise Trunnion	p. 40
Godliness, a Tale in Four Parts
Concerning Jesse Bentley	p. 45
Also concerning Jesse Bentley	p. 55
Surrender-concerning Louise Bentley	p. 68
Terror-concerning David Hardy	p. 78
A Man of Ideas-concerning Joe Welling	p. 84
Adventure-concerning Alice Hindman	p. 94
Respectability-concerning Wash Williams	p. 103
The Thinker-concerning Seth Richmond	p. 111
Tandy-concerning Tandy Hard	p. 127
The Strength of God-concerning the Reverend Curtis Hartman	p. 131
The Teacher-concerning Kate Swift	p. 141
Loneliness-concerning Enoch Robinson	p. 151
An Awakening-concerning Belle Carpenter	p. 163
"Queer"-concerning Elmer Cowley	p. 174
The Untold Lie-concerning Ray Pearson	p. 186
Drink-concerning Tom Foster	p. 194
Death-concerning Doctor Reefy and Elizabeth Willard	p. 205
Sophistication-concerning Helen White	p. 218
Departure-concerning George Willard	p. 229
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