Winesburg, Ohio

Sherwood Anderson’s book of interconnected short stories Winesburg, Ohio tells the story of a town through portrayals of a half-dozen of its most notable residents. The book is narrated by town reporter George Willard, who, having grown up in Winesburg, decides to abandon the town as an adult. Overall, the book is concerned with the faulty nature of the absolute truths grasped at by the characters in Winesburg, Ohio which become their downfall each story. Written in 1919, the stories take place around the same period.

In the prologue, an old writer settled in his bed thinks about the people he knew in Winesburg as “grotesques,” who grasped so tightly to absolute truths, they ruined their own lives and brought disappointment upon themselves and their loved ones. After the carpenter he hired to raise his bed to match the height of the window begins sobbing, telling the old man the story of his brother's death, the old man, who is dying, is pleased with thoughts of death. The prologue touches on the fickleness of expectation and the thoughts of men that are not as steadfast as we might like to believe.

“Hands,” describes Wing Biddlebaum, a man with uncontrollable hands who flees town after accusations spread that he molested a little boy in a neighboring town. “Paper Pills,” is about an old doctor who marries one of his much younger patients only to grieve her death six months later.



“Mother,” introduces George Willard's mother, Elizabeth, an unhappy woman who, feeling trapped in her marriage, fights George's father for control over their son's life. Later, in “The Philosopher,” the crazy Dr. Parcival, who believes he is being chased by a lynch mob, divulges the secret of life to George. In “Nobody Knows,” George has sex with the young girl Louise in a field outside town, later, feeling guilty for his actions. This is followed by “Godliness,” about a delusional farmer who, believing he receives messages from God, ruins his relationship with his daughter and traumatizes his grandson David when he takes him out into the woods, waiting for a message from the Lord.

A series of stories follows, including one about a telegraph operator, another about a couple falling out of love after their move to Winesburg, and a third about Joe Welling, a man with an uncontrollable stutter who starts a baseball club. More stories follow featuring Kate Swift, with whom many of the men in town fall in love. In one, the Reverend, catching sight of Kate in her window from the belltower of the church, falls madly in love with her. Believing he has finally seen the light, he directs his sermons to her, becoming so obsessed and delusional, he tells George that Kate is a message from God. Later, George feels as though Kate might be in love with him. She encourages him to try to understand what people are thinking. She confesses her love to George one night, but then punches him in the face and runs away. George is so confused, he thinks he must have missed Kate's underlying message.

Many stories follow, each including interactions with George Willard who continues to look for love, finding only loneliness and confusion. After George's father dies, his mother, Elizabeth, courts and falls in love with Dr. Reefy. Not heeding her first husband's advice to escape Winesburg, Elizabeth dies not feeling sustained as she had hoped by Dr. Reefy's love. In her last moments, she becomes much more connected to her now aging son, George.



The last story, “Departure,” follows George as he walks to the train station, preparing to leave town. Many people in town shake his hand. His ex-lover Helen White is there waiting for him, but George doesn't see her in the chaos. Instead, he sits on the train and counts his money, wondering why the car hasn't started moving. When he looks up from counting the change in his hand, the train has left the station, and the only home he is ever known is gone.

Winesburg, Ohio, written by author Sherwood Anderson in 1919, was loosely inspired by his own childhood growing up in Clyde, Ohio. Though it was originally questioned for its unconventional method of storytelling, many academics and critics now consider it one of the most significant portrayals of early-industrial small-town American life in the history of American literature. It is also considered one of the first Modernist novels because of its style and focus on the psychology of its characters. Anderson wrote a number of novels and four collections of short stories. Winesburg, Ohio is one of his most widely known and read works.