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Sherwood Anderson by Tony Francis Sherwood Anderson was an influence to some of the greatest American authors including Hemmingway, Eliot, and Joyce. His short fiction touched upon themes of every day life. His vision was crafted around the troubles in his life. Sherwood Anderson’s vision, style, and influence shaped the American literary scene in a way that will never be forgotten. To truly understand Sherwood Anderson’s vision you need to know his life. Anderson was born September 13, 1876 in Ohio. Anderson’s education ended after high school because his family needed him to go to work to support his family. Anderson started a hardware store, writing in his free time. At the age of 36, Anderson had a mental collapse where he randomly wandered out of his hardware store and was found three days later in Cincinnati, Ohio. This marked the point in his life where Anderson stopped being a regular “Joe” and devoted his entire life to writing. Upon making this decision Anderson left his wife and children and moved to Chicago. He befriended numerous other writers and traveled all over the world with his writer friends. Throughout the course of his adventure Anderson was married three more times. Anderson’s life was cut short when, on a good will trip to Panama, he swallowed a tooth pick which cut his throat which got infected and killed Anderson. Sherwood Anderson was a mentor and friend to some of America's most well known authors Ernest Hemmingway. His influence can be seen in Hemmingway’s work. David Stouck writes “Hemmingway wrote his mean-spirited parody of Anderson in order to dispel the anxiety of influence he felt in relation to his literary mentor; but in doing so he highlighted aspects of Anderson’s work that have become valued features of the contemporary postmodern novel”(Stouck,304), this quote shows Andersons influence on Hemmingway and the American writing scene. Anderson was close friends with Gertrude Stein, another write of the day, and Stein wrote on Anderson’s use of the American language “The triumph of the Egg has style conception”, which mean that Anderson did not just used words to convey a message but looked at the words themselves. Anderson plays with sentence structure, words, and punctuation like an artist plays with paint upon the canvas. Anderson’s use of words and his influence were great contributes to his overall writing vision. His obvious influence on other writers show how Anderson changed the literary world with his work. Sherwood Anderson’s work is riddled with numerous themes, the themes prevalent in his novels such mechanization of the Midwest and the confusion of an adolescent boy wondering if he is homosexuals or heterosexual. One of Anderson’s most prevailing themes is the unreality of reality, how the norm is nothing and reality is only what you perceive reality to be. This idea or seed from which this main theme stems is Anderson’s nervous break down. All of Anderson’s themes could be directly related to a point or event in Anderson’s life. His life was full of little farms being bought up by large farms that could afford mechanization. Though it was never clearly said, based on the fact that most of Anderson’s themes were based on his life, it could be guessed that Anderson was an in the closet homosexual or at least as a teenager was confuse about his own sexuality. The main point is that Anderson’s vision was seen through his life which he wrote intertwined with his novels. Bloom, Harold, “Bloom’s Major Short Story Writer, Sherwood Anderson”. Ed. Harold Bloom. Broomall, PA: Chelsea House Publishers. 2003 Pg 11-17, 19-28, 85-90 In Bloom’s novel on Sherwood Anderson he discusses Anderson’s life and reviews his more famous novels and short stories. From Bloom’s book I used the biography of Anderson’s life to fill in the gaps of that Rex Burbank’s book had created. I also used the summary of one of Anderson’s short stories to try to understand his writing style, the short stories was “Godliness”. I also read another short story by Anderson called “The Man Who Became a Woman”. This led me to other conclusions on Anderson’s life that were never clearly stated. I think that this book needed some pictures of Anderson. In the book there were no picture so I could not put a face to his writing style. Also if they were to put in a picture they should try to find one where Anderson looks happy because in all the picture I found he looked frumpy. Burbank, Rex, “Sherwood Anderson”. Ed. Sylvia E bowman, Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1964 “Sherwood Anderson” by Rex Burbank, was full of useful information on Sherwood Anderson’s life, writings, and criticisms of his works. I am only going to use this novel for the biography and the time line. The time line and biography were good but I do not think that they were comprehensive enough. If I were to improve I would give more detail into his life. I would be more thorough because, though helpful, the time line and biography did not give enough detail and I had to go to another source to fill in the gaps. Kummings, Donald D. “A Review of Certain Things Last: The Selected Short Stories of Sherwood Anderson” DISCovering Authors. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. //Student// //Resource Center-// //Gold.// Gale. Fuquay Varina High School/wcps/. 21 May .2008 <[|http://find.galegroup.com/srcx Donald Kummings essay on Anderson’s writing career were very helpful. He gave specific quotes from other authors of the time that really showed Anderson’s impact on the American writing scene. Also it gave a rather positive review of his short works of fiction which was nice to read a critic being friendly. I plan on using some of the quotes. Kumming’s thought were useful in helping me get and even greater insight into Anderson’s writing style and his vision. Stouck, David. "Sherwood Anderson and the Postmodern Novel." __University__ __of Wisconsin Press__ Literary Reference Center. <[|http://search.ebscohost.com>. Mr. Stouck’s essay on Sherwood Anderson was very helpful. It did not discuss any biography about his life which was refreshing because I grow tired and depressed when I examine Anderson’s life. Stouck mainly look to Anderson’s contemporaries and his students. Much of his essay focused on how Hemmingway was trying to separate himself from Anderson, which gave lots of insight into his vision because Hemmingway had bits and pieces of Anderson’s style in his work. The language in the essay was at a higher level making it slightly difficult to read. Another little qualm is that Stouck kept referencing authors that I had never heard of and it made it hard to understand his contrasts and comparisons.