Sherwood Anderson

Born in Camden, Ohio, on September 13, 1876, he grew up in modest circumstances and spent much of his youth in and around small Midwestern towns. Those early experiences became the emotional ground of his fiction, which returned again and again to ordinary people, loneliness, and the hidden lives behind everyday surfaces.

Before becoming a full-time writer, he worked in business and advertising in Ohio. After a personal crisis in 1912, he left that life behind and moved into literary work in Chicago. His breakthrough came with Winesburg, Ohio in 1919, a linked set of stories loosely shaped by memories of Clyde, Ohio; he later published other notable books including The Triumph of the Egg and Poor White.

Remembered for a plain, direct style and a deep interest in inner feeling, he had a strong influence on 20th-century American literature, especially the short story. He died in Colón, Panama, on March 8, 1941.