Sherwood Anderson was said by Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Cather, and others to be their major guide in writing short stories and the novel. Winesburg, Ohio is a landmark work many of us have read. His short stories are less read and truly a jewel to run across. Anderson, in many ways, is best appreciated in narration rather than in writing. His stories were meant to be told, as they are in the stories themselves. These nine are his best:
- “Brothers”
- “The Door of the Trap”
- “The Dumb Man”
- “The Egg”
- “Motherhood”
- “The New Englander”
- “The Other Woman”
- “Seeds”
- “War”
He covers the great American topics of ambition, cheerfulness to do so, big dreams that don’t work, being imprisoned by limitations one can’t escape, repressed sexuality especially among women due to the rule book imposed upon them, and the choking off of newness by old ideas.
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