舍伍德·安德森

作品

舍伍德·安德森的第一部小说《饶舌的麦克佛逊的儿子》在1916年发表，三年之后，他发表了他第二部主要作品《前进的人》。他是以1919年发表的《俄亥俄州的温士堡镇》小说集成名的，这部小说集由互相关联的短篇组成。安德森自己认为《俄亥俄州的温士堡镇》中的第一篇小说《手》是他写的第一篇“真正”的小说。

1920年，他发表了《穷白人》。 1923年，他发表了《多种婚姻》，作者在之后的小说里也贯彻了这部小说里的主题。有一些人对这部小说提出异议，但大部分评论家对其持正面评价。比如菲茨杰拉德认为《多种婚姻》是安德森最好的一部小说。

1924年之后，安德森搬到了朋塔巴大厅住，他加入了在新奥尔良的杰克逊广场的文人圈子。在那里，他和他的妻子碰到了威廉·福克纳，卡尔·桑德堡，埃德蒙德·威尔逊等文学名人。1925，他根据他在新奥尔良的经历写了《阴沉的笑》，但海明威在《春潮（The Torrents of Spring）》里批评了这部小说。

Sherwood Anderson (September 13, 1876 – March 8, 1941) was an American novelist and short story writer, known for subjective and self-revealing works. Self-educated, he rose to become a successful copywriter and business owner in Cleveland and Elyria, Ohio. In 1912, Anderson had a nervous breakdown that led him to abandon his business and family to become a writer.

At the time, he moved to Chicago and was eventually married three additional times. His most enduring work is the short-story sequence Winesburg, Ohio, which launched his career. Throughout the 1920s, Anderson published several short story collections, novels, memoirs, books of essays, and a book of poetry. Though his books sold reasonably well, his only bestseller was Dark Laughter (1925), a novel inspired by Anderson's time in the American army in Cuba, his residing in New Orleans during the 1920s, his employment as a factory worker and in advertising, and his life in the small-town midwest. Dark Laughter remains of contemporary interest with its Joyce-influenced shifting points of view.

Early life

Sherwood Berton Anderson was born on September 13, 1876, at 142 S. Lafayette Street in Camden, Ohio, a farming town with a population of around 650 (according to the 1870 census).……

Chicago and war

Anderson moved to a boardinghouse in Chicago owned by a former mayor of Clyde. His brother Karl lived in the city and was studying at the Art Institute. Anderson moved in with him and quickly found a job at a cold-storage plant.……

Business, marriage and family

During his time in Springfield, Anderson stayed and worked as a "chore boy" in a boardinghouse called The Oaks among a group of businessmen, educators, and other creative types, many of whom became friendly with the young Anderson.……

Nervous breakdown

It was then, at what seemed the pinnacle of his business achievements, when the stresses of Anderson's professional life collided with his social responsibilities and his writing, that Anderson suffered the breakdown that has remained central to the "myth" or "legend" of his life.

Novelist

Anderson's first novel, Windy McPherson's Son, was published in 1916 as part of a three-book deal with John Lane.……

Marriage

Anderson and Cornelia Lane married in 1904, had his only 3 children, and divorced in 1916. Anderson quickly married the sculptor Tennessee Claflin Mitchell (1874–1929), obtaining a divorce from her in Reno, Nevada in 1924.

Later work

Anderson frequently contributed articles to newspapers. In 1935, he was commissioned to go to Franklin County, Virginia to cover a major federal trial of bootleggers and gangsters, in what was called "The Great Moonshine Conspiracy". More than 30 men had been indicted for trial.……

Death

During a cruise to South America, Anderson had been feeling abdominal discomfort for a few days. He and his wife debarked from the cruise liner Santa Lucia and went to the hospital in Colón, Panama where he died on March 8, 1941, at the age of 64.……

Legacy and honors

In 1971, Anderson's final home in Troutdale, Virginia, known as Ripshin Farm, was designated as a National Historic Landmark.

In 2012, Anderson was inducted into the Chicago Literary Hall of Fame.

In 1988 the Sherwood Anderson Foundation was created by the author's children and grandchildren.……

Works

Novels

Windy McPherson's Son (1916)

Marching Men (1917)

Poor White (1920)

Many Marriages (1923)

Dark Laughter (1925)

Tar: A Midwest Childhood (1926, semi-autobiographical novel)

Beyond Desire (1932)

Kit Brandon: A Portrait (1936)

Short story collections

Winesburg, Ohio (1919)

Poetry

Mid-American Chants (1918)

A New Testament (1927)

Drama

Plays, Winesburg and Others (1937)