Other editions of book Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Tales of Ohio Small-Town Life

'Winesburg, Ohio' was published 1919, to much critical acclaim. Using the narrative voice of George Willard, and following this character intermittently throughout the book, the author skillfully blends a series of apparently unrelated short stories into a unified theme of human aspiration and disappointment. Anderson is scornful of too materialistic a view of existence, and suspicious of 'absolute truth'. Many of the characters in 'Winesburg' fail in their lives precisely because they cling unthinkingly to one particular principle. The book may purport to concern only the inhabitants of a fictional American town but, in truth, it is the tale of Everyman, a universal story of humanity.

A timeless collection of short stories about an imaginary small town, unified by the presence of Winesburg Eagle reporter George Willard, Winesburg, Ohio is, as H.L. Mencken said upon it's publication in 1919, "...vivid, so full of insight, so shiningly life-like and glowing, that the book is lifted into a category all its own."Presented here by the leading lights of modern American letters, Winesburg, Ohio reverberates with the passion of both Sherwood Anderson and the many writers whom he has influenced.

"Here [is] a new order of short story," said H.L. Mencken when Winesburg, Ohio was published in 1919. "It is so vivid, so full of insight, so shiningly life-like and glowing, that the book is lifted into a category all its own." Indeed, Sherwood Anderson's timeless cycle of loosely connected tales--in which a young reporter named George Willard probes the hopes, dreams, and fears of the solitary people in a small Midwestern town at the turn of the century--embraced a new frankness and realism that ushered American literature into the modern age. "There are moments in American life to which Anderson gave not only the first but the final expression," wrote Malcolm Cowley. "Winesburg, Ohio is far from the pessimistic or morbidly sexual work it was once attacked for being. Instead it is a work of love, an attempt to break down the walls of loneliness, and, in its own fashion, a celebration of small-town life in the lost days of good will and innocence."

This timeless collection charted a new stylistic path for modern fiction. Through twenty-two connected short stories, Sherwood Anderson looks into the lives of the inhabitants of a small town in the American heartland. These psychological portraits of the sensitive and imaginative of Winesburg's population are seen through the eyes of a young reporter-narrator, George Willard. Their stories are about loneliness and alienation, passion and virginity, wealth and poverty, thrift and profligacy, carelessness and abandon. With its simple and intense style, Winesburg, Ohio evokes the quiet moments of epiphany in the lives of ordinary men and women. Though its reputation once suffered, Winesburg, Ohio is now considered one of the most influential portraits of pre-industrial small-town life in the United States. In 1998, the Modern Library ranked it twenty-fourth on its list of the 100 best English-language novels of the twentieth century, and it continues to be read widely both in and out of classrooms around the country.

This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.

The book 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. No sooner did _Winesburg, Ohio_ make its appearance than a number of critical labels were fixed on it: the revolt against the village, the espousal of sexual freedom, the deepening of American realism. Such tags may once have had their point, but by now they seem dated and stale. The revolt against the village (about which Anderson was always ambivalent) has faded into history. The espousal of sexual freedom would soon be exceeded in boldness by other writers. And as for the effort to place _Winesburg, Ohio_ in a tradition of American realism, that now seems dubious. Only rarely is the object of Anderson's stories social verisimilitude, or the "photographing" of familiar appearances, in the sense, say, that one might use to describe a novel by Theodore Dreiser or Sinclair Lewis. Only occasionally, and then with a very light touch, does Anderson try to fill out the social arrangements of his imaginary town -- although the fact that his stories are set in a mid-American place like Winesburg does constitute an important formative condition.

Published in 1919, Winesburg, Ohio is Sherwood Anderson’s masterpiece, a work in which he achieved the goal to which he believed all true writers should aspire: to see and feel “all of life within.” In a perfectly imagined world, an archetypal small American town, he reveals the hidden passions that turn ordinary lives into unforgettable ones. Unified by the recurring presence of young George Willard, and played out against the backdrop of Winesburg, Anderson’s loosely connected chapters, or stories, coalesce into a powerful novel. In such tales as “Hands,” the portrayal of a rural berry picker still haunted by the accusations of homosexuality that ended his teaching career, Anderson’s vision is as acute today as it was over eighty-five years ago. His intuitive ability to home in on examples of timeless, human conflicts—a workingman deciding if he should marry the woman who is to bear his child, an unhappy housewife who seeks love from the town’s doctor, an unmarried high school teacher sexually attracted to a pupil—makes this book not only immensely readable but also deeply meaningful. An important influence on Faulkner, Hemingway, and others who were drawn to Anderson’s innovative format and psychological insights, Winesburg, Ohio deserves a place among the front ranks of our nation’s finest literary achievements. INTRODUCTION by Irving Howe THE TALES AND THE PERSONS THE BOOK OF THE GROTESQUE HANDS, concerning Wing Biddlebaum PAPER PILLS, concerning Doctor Reefy MOTHER, concerning Elizabeth Willard THE PHILOSOPHER, concerning Doctor Parcival NOBODY KNOWS, concerning Louise Trunnion GODLINESS, a Tale in Four Parts I, concerning Jesse Bentley II, also concerning Jesse Bentley III Surrender, concerning Louise Bentley IV Terror, concerning David Hardy A MAN OF IDEAS, concerning Joe Welling ADVENTURE, concerning Alice Hindman RESPECTABILITY, concerning Wash Williams THE THINKER, concerning Seth Richmond TANDY, concerning Tandy Hard THE STRENGTH OF GOD, concerning the Reverend Curtis Hartman THE TEACHER, concerning Kate Swift LONELINESS, concerning Enoch Robinson AN AWAKENING, concerning Belle Carpenter "QUEER," concerning Elmer Cowley THE UNTOLD LIE, concerning Ray Pearson DRINK, concerning Tom Foster DEATH, concerning Doctor Reefy and Elizabeth Willard SOPHISTICATION, concerning Helen White DEPARTURE, concerning George Willard