Winesburg Ohio

Portraying the characters and events of a small Midwestern town at the end of the nineteenth century, Winesburg, Ohio is a chronological cycle of stories which reads like an episodic novel. Centring on George Willard, a young local reporter with big-city aspirations, and his conversations with fellow inhabitants, the book gives voice to a disparate cast of figures and lays bare the constraints and struggles of life in a small community.

The son of a day labourer, Sherwood Anderson (1876 - 1941), spent his youth and early adulthood working in various jobs across the Midwest, before devoting himself to fiction. He went on to become one of the most influential writers of the early twentieth century, notably for his short stories.