Winesburg, Ohio - Softcover

Anderson, Sherwood

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0670000396 ISBN 13: 9780670000395

Publisher: Penguin Books, 1958

Synopsis

Winesburg, Ohio (full title: Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small-Town Life) is a 1919 short story cycle by the American author Sherwood Anderson. The work is structured around the life of protagonist George Willard, from the time he was a child to his growing independence and ultimate abandonment of Winesburg as a young man. It is set in the fictional town of Winesburg, Ohio (not to be confused with the actual Winesburg), which is based loosely on the author's childhood memories of Clyde, Ohio. "Winesburg, Ohio" was received well by critics despite some reservations about its moral tone and unconventional storytelling. It is now considered to be one of the most influential portraits of pre-industrial small-town life in the United States. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked "Winesburg, Ohio" 24th on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the 20th century. Contents: The Book Of The Grotesque Hands Paper Pills Mother The Philosopher Nobody Knows Godliness A Man Of Ideas Adventure Respectability The Thinker Tandy The Strength Of God The Teacher Loneliness An Awakening “Queer” The Untold Lie Drink Death Sophistication Departure This edition of "Winesburg, Ohio" contains supplementary texts: · "I Want To Know Why", by Sherwood Anderson · "Brothers", by Sherwood Anderson · A Few Quotes Of Sherwood Anderson

About this title

Review:

Library Journal praised this edition of Sherwood Anderson's famed short stories as "the finest edition of this seminal work available." Reconstructed to be as close to the original text as possible, Winesburg, Ohio depicts the strange, secret lives of the inhabitants of a small town. In "Hands," Wing Biddlebaum tries to hide the tale of his banishment from a Pennsylvania town, a tale represented by his hands. In "Adventure," lonely Alice Hindman impulsively walks naked into the night rain. Threaded through the stories is the viewpoint of George Willard, the young newspaper reporter who, like his creator, stands witness to the dark and despairing dealings of a community of isolated people.

From the Back Cover:

In 1919 a middle-aged Chicago advertising writer from Ohio, a failure as a businessman, husband, and father, published a slim yellow book of short stories intended to "reform" American literature. Sherwood Anderson strove to portray the buried inner lives of "pathetic grotesques" - people wounded by life in body or spirit - and to tell their stories in short revelations rather than in sweeping novels. Against all expectations, Winesburg Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small Town Life accomplished what its author intended. Afterwards, American literature would be written and read differently. Writers of short fiction learned from Anderson to achieve both character-centered form and daring Modernist subject matter. Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, authorized by the Sherwood Anderson Literary Estate Trust, is an expert text, in that Ray Lewis White has consulted all Anderson manuscripts, typescripts, letters, diaries, and all editions of the book to present the masterpiece as it was intended. White's edition also is informed by his 35 years of experience in editing, studying, and appreciating Sherwood Anderson and his fiction. New to this edition of Winesburg, Ohio are historical and cultural annotations, documentation of changes of various editions, identification of the Ohio originals of Anderson's characters; and maps of the real town of Clyde, in North Central Ohio, which was the basis of Anderson's fictional account. Included as well are unique photographs of Anderson and Clyde that deepen knowledge and feeling for the author's time and his work.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Publication date: 1958
• ISBN 10: 0670000396
• ISBN 13: 9780670000395
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 247