In this moving collection of interrelated stories, Ohio-born Sherwood Anderson 1876-1941 illuminates the loneliness and frustration - spiritual, emotional and artistic - of life in a small American town. Winesburg, Ohio subtly portrays as well a young writer's coming of age, searching for love, yearning for a less stifling world.
Through the eyes of young George Willard, the inner lives of many of Winesburg's inhabitants open to us. Before George leaves the community, we have learned much about his mother Elizabeth, his friend Helen White, his teacher Kate Swift and other Winesburg residents - the lonely, sensitive Dr. Reefy, the tormented Rev. Charles Hartman and the enigmatic Wing Biddlebaum among them.
Through Anderson's art, their stories are woven into a powerful portrayal of community life, and, ironically, of the isolation its close atmosphere can engender. A great success on its first publication in 1919, Winesburg, Ohio profoundly influenced a generation of fiction writers with its deeply moving poetic realism. It endures as a classic portrait of American life.
ANDERSON SHERWOOD
Camden, 1876 - Colón, 1941 Cuentista y novelista estadounidense de gran influencia en el relato breve a causa de su técnica y la utilización del lenguaje popular en sus historias. Su madre era de origen italiano y su padre se complacía en narrar a su hijo fantásticos e imaginarios episodios de su vida que, según confesión del propio Anderson, sirvieron para encaminarle más tarde por el camino de la narrativa. La familia pasaba frecuentemente de una localidad a otra de Ohio, por lo que la educación del muchacho quedó interrumpida a veces y no fue sistemática. A partir de los catorce años dejó de asistir a la escuela, excepto un breve período de estudios en el Wittenberg College.
