Winesburg, Ohio is a 1919 short story cycle by the American author Sherwood Anderson. Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Sherwood Anderson in 1933. ... For other uses, see Country (disambiguation). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... This article is about the literary concept. ... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... Hardcover books A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) is a book bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth, heavy paper, or sometimes leather). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... ISBN redirects here. ... Sherwood Anderson in 1933. ...

Plot introduction

A critically acclaimed work of fiction by the American author Sherwood Anderson, the book, published in 1919, is a collection of related short stories, which could be loosely defined as a novel. The stories are centered on the protagonist George Willard and the fictional inhabitants of the town of Winesburg, Ohio (not the actual unincorporated town of Winesburg in Holmes County). For other uses, see Fiction (disambiguation). ... Sherwood Anderson in 1933. ... Year 1919 (MCMXIX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar). ... This article is in need of attention. ... This article is about the literary concept. ... A protagonist is the main figure of a piece of literature or drama and has the main part or role. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Water tower in Winesburg Swinesburg is a town in Holmes County, Ohio. ... Holmes County is a county located in the state of Ohio. ...

Plot summary

The work explores the theme of loneliness and frustration in small-town America. Anderson's writing often seems disjointed and tentative, a style that lends itself to the half-conscious thoughts and raw emotions of Winesburg's residents and their inability to express their deepest hopes and fears. The townspeople are grotesques, stunted morally, emotionally, mentally, or spiritually, and they are inarticulate. They seem to gravitate toward George, telling him their strange, often sad, stories in the hope that, in writing the stories of their lives, he will be able to impart dignity and meaning to their personal struggles and experiences. The chapter "Paper Pills" recounts how the misshapen apples - the grotesques of the orchard - are ignored, left on the tree, where they slowly ripen until they fall. Those that bother to taste these discarded grotesques discover they are the sweetest of apples. This article is about the word itself. ... This article is about the use of the moral in storytelling. ... Look up Emotion in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... For other uses, see Mind (disambiguation). ... Spirituality, in a narrow sense, concerns itself with matters of the spirit. ...

Literary significance & criticism

The critical reception to Winesburg, Ohio upon its publication was positive, but it did not receive a wide readership. Among the literati, it was very highly regarded, but its sales were modest. It is now regarded as one of the finest American novels of the 20th century. An intellectual is a person who uses his or her intellect to study, reflect, and speculate on a variety of different ideas. ...

Allusions/references from other works

The characterization foreshadowed the outlook of Sinclair Lewis toward American Midwest in his novel Main Street, published the following year, although it seems as though it is a parody of the citizens of Winesburg. In both works, the townspeople are presented as being simple-minded, but are miserable in Anderson's work while they are obliviously happy in all their narrow mindedness with the heroine, struggling to reform their mindset as the only miserable one in Main Street. Sinclair Lewis Sinclair Lewis (February 7, 1885 — January 10, 1951) was an American novelist and playwright. ... Midwest States (United States of America, ND to OH) The Midwest is a common name for a region of the United States of America. ... Main Street book cover The satirical novel Main Street by Sinclair Lewis was published in 1920. ... In contemporary usage, a parody (or lampoon) is a work that imitates another work in order to ridicule, ironically comment on, or poke some affectionate fun at the work itself, the subject of the work, the author or fictional voice of the parody, or another subject. ...

Ray Bradbury has credited Winesburg, Ohio as an inspiration for his book The Martian Chronicles.^[1] H. P. Lovecraft said that he wrote the short story "Arthur Jermyn" after he "had nearly fallen asleep over the tame backstairs gossip of Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio."^[2] Ray Douglas Bradbury (born August 22, 1920) is an American literary, fantasy, horror, science fiction, and mystery writer best known for The Martian Chronicles, a 1950 book which has been described both as a short story collection and a novel, and his 1953 dystopian novel Fahrenheit 451. ... The Martian Chronicles is a 1950 science fiction novel by Ray Bradbury that chronicles the colonization of Mars by humans fleeing from a troubled Earth, and the conflict between aboriginal Martians and the new colonists. ... This article is about the author. ... Facts Concerning the Late Arthur Jermyn and His Family is a short story by H.P. Lovecraft, written in 1920. ...

Israeli writer Amos Oz writes in his biography "A tale of love and darkness" that "Winesburg, Ohio" had an extremely big influence on his writing, showing him that literature must not necessarily always be about heroes. Actually, only after reading Anderson he found the courage to start writing. Amos Oz, November 7 2004 Amos Oz (born May 4, 1939), birth name Amos Klausner, is an Israeli writer, novelist, and journalist. ...

It is rumoured that screenwriter Daniel Waters, in his screenplay for the black comedy Heathers, created the name of the fictional town of Sherwood, Ohio from Sherwood Anderson's name as a form of tribute. Daniel Waters was an officer in the Continental Navy and in the United States Navy. ... This article is about the film Heathers. ...

Allusions/references to actual history, geography and current science

Anderson grew up in Clyde, Ohio, and this town served as the model for his fictional town of Winesburg, Ohio. (There is some confusion on which town served as the model for this fictional work, because there is a real town with the name Winesburg, Ohio. He reportedly created his fictional characters by combining the qualities of many real life people from notable families in the area, such as the Dumingers, Farrars, Belchers, Skeelses, Crockets and Wises. Clyde is a city located in Sandusky County, Ohio. ... Water tower in Winesburg Swinesburg is a town in Holmes County, Ohio. ...

TV and Theatrical production

A TV version was made in 1973 starring Joseph and Timothy Bottoms as George Willard, Jean Peters as Elizabeth Willard, Curt Conway as Will Henderson, Norman Foster as Old Pete, Dabbs Greer as Parcival, Albert Salmi as Tom Willard, Laurette Spang as Helen White, and William Windom as Dr. Reefy. A musical of the same name won the Barrymore Award for "Outstanding musical" in 2006. [1] Joseph Bottoms (born December 15, 1963 in Millington, Tennesseeis an American engineer. ... Timothy Bottoms (born August 30, 1951) is an American actor. ... Elizabeth Jean Peters (October 15, 1926 – October 13, 2000) was an American actress. ... Curt Conway (May 4, 1915 – April 10, 1974) was an American actor. ... Film director and movie actor Norman Foster (December 13, 1900 - July 7, 1976) may be best remembered for being married twice - both times to leading ladies. ... Robert William Dabbs Greer (April 2, 1917 — April 28, 2007) [1]) was an American character actor who performed many diverse supporting roles in film and television for about 50 years. ... Albert Salmi (born March 11, 1928; died April 23, 1990) was an American actor. ... Laurette Spang-McCook (born May 16, 1951 in Buffalo, New York, USA as Laurette Michelle Spanglet) is a retired American television actress. ... William Windom playing the role of Dr. Seth Hazlitt on the television series Murder, She Wrote William Windom, (born September 28, 1923, New York, New York), great-grandson of U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, of the same name, is an American actor, best known for his work on television... The Barrymore Awards are the Philadelphia-area awards for excellence in theater, analogous to New Yorks Tony Awards. ...

External links

• Winesburg, Ohio, available at Project Gutenberg.
• Winesburg, Ohio at American Literature
• "Wal-Mart Opens Store In Winesburg, Ohio" (satire) from The Onion.

Project Gutenberg, abbreviated as PG, is a volunteer effort to digitize, archive and distribute cultural works. ... The Onion is a United States-based parody newspaper published weekly in print and daily online. ...

Notes

1. ^ "Run Fast, Stand Still, or, The Thing at the Top of the Stairs, or, New Ghosts from Old Minds," How to Write Tales of Horror, Fantasy & Science Fiction, edited by J.A. Williamson, Writers Digest Books, 1986; collected in Zen in the Art of Writing.
2. ^ H. P. Lovecraft, letter to Edwin Baird, c. October 1923; cited in S. T. Joshi and David Schultz, An H. P. Lovecraft Encyclopedia, p. 90.