The Man from Winesburg (A Life of Sherwood Anderson)

Literary father of the Lost Generation, leading figure of the Chicago literary renaissance, pioneer of the American short story, and author of the monumental Winesburg, Ohio—Sherwood Anderson was a quintessentially American writer. From Anderson’s small-town childhood to his influence on American literary legends like Faulkner, Hemingway, Wolfe, and Steinbeck, The Man from Winesburg follows Anderson as he traces the shifting contours of a rapidly transforming nation—and while he wanders the country in search of connection and meaning. Bruce Falconer, executive editor of the American Scholar, shows how Anderson suffered terribly from suicidal depressions and nervous breakdowns; became notorious for his romantic failures; and wrote books both banned and acclaimed for directly addressing sex, repression, and perversion. The Man from Winesburg describes the poignant life of a writer who fought against the ugliest aspects of America’s soul—rapacious capitalism, economic inequality, racial enmity, and above all, loneliness—while aspiring to belong to something larger than the moment at hand.