Sherwood Anderson

Question 1

DOB-DOD

Answer 1

September 13th, 1867 - March 8th, 1941

Question 2

Literary Contribution

Answer 2

American Novelist and short story writer

Question 3

Writing Style

Answer 3

strove for the simplest possible prose, using brief or at least uncomplex sentences and an unsophisticated vocabulary appropriate to the muffled awareness and limited resources of his typical characters.

Question 4

Writing Structure

Answer 4

his stories build toward a moment when the character breaks out in some frenzied gesture of releasse that is revelatory or a hidden inner life

Question 5

First Work

Answer 5

“Winesburg, Ohio” - novel in short story sequence or short story form
Appeared in 1919 when he was 43 years old. Remains a major work of experimental fiction and was in its time a bold treatment of small-town life in the American mid-West in the tradition of Edgar Lee Master’s “Spoon River Anthology”

Question 6

Most Notable Work

Answer 6

Short stories published in three volumes:
“The Triumph of the Egg” (1921)
“Horses and Men” (1923)
“Death in the Woods and Other Stories” (1933)

Question 7

Influenced

Answer 7

Ernest Hemingway (Denied it)
William Faulkner (Denied it)
John Steinbeck
J.D. Salinger
Amos Oz

Question 8

Early Life

Answer 8

1904: Married Cornelia Lane, fathered three children, kept a steady job, and was unhappy
1912: had a nervous breakdown, literally walking away from everything. Was found 30 miles away from home 4 days after his dissappearance

Question 9

1912

Answer 9

Left his home and wife and went to Chicago where he met the writers that initiated the Chicago Renaissance:
FLoyd Dell, Theodore Dreiser, Edgar Lee Masters, Vachel Lindsey, and Carl Sandburg

Question 10

Only Bestseller

Answer 10

“Dark Laughter” (1925) - Hemingway satirized it.

Question 11

“Hands”

Answer 11

claimed to be the first story that he ever wrote