Sherwood
Anderson
A Writer in America,
Volume 2
Walter B. Rideout
"The ultimate biographical work on Anderson."–Welford D. Taylor, University of Richmond
Sherwood Anderson, an important American
novelist and short-story writer of the early twentieth century,
is probably best known for his novel Winesburg, Ohio. His realistic
and nonformulaic writing style would influence the next generation
of authors, most notably Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner.
Walter Rideout's Sherwood Anderson: A Writer in America is a seminal work that reintroduces us to this important, yet
recently neglected, American writer, giving him long overdue
attention. This second volume of the monumental two-volume work
covers Anderson's life after his move in the mid-1920s to "Ripshin,"
his house near Marion, Virginia (where Volume 1 ended.)
The second volume covers his return to business pursuits; his
extensive travels in the South touring factories, which resulted
in his political involvement in labor struggles and several books
on the topic; and finally his unexpected death in 1941.
No other existing Anderson biography, the most recent of which
was published nearly twenty years ago, is as thoroughly researched,
so extensively based on primary sources and interviews with a
range of Anderson's friends and family members, or as complete
in its vision of the man and the writer. Rideout uncovers much
new information about events and people in Anderson's life and
provides a new perspective on many of his works. This two-volume
biography presents Anderson's many remarkable attributes more
clearly than ever before, while astutely placing his life and
writings in the broader social, political, and artistic movements
of his times.
Praise for Sherwood Anderson, Volume
1:
"This will surely be the definitive biography of Anderson
for beyond the foreseeable future. A perusal of the endnotes
shows that some of Rideout's interviews and research go back
fifty years. It is difficult to believe that anyone else will
put this much labor into Anderson's life. Indeed, this book is
not just praiseworthy as a superb portrayal of its subject. It
is a testament–even a throwback–to the sort of dedicated,
painstaking literary scholarship that is rarely seen anymore
in our technophilic age."–Roger K. Miller, Chicago
Sun-Times
Walter B. Rideout (1917–2006) was professor emeritus of English at the University
of Wisconsin–Madison, coeditor of Letters of Sherwood
Anderson, and author of The Radical Novel in the United
States, 1900–1954, for which he received the Robert
F. Ferguson Award of the Friends of Literature.
Media & bookseller inquiries regarding review copies, events, and interviews can be directed to the publicity department at publicity@uwpress.wisc.edu or (608) 263-0734. (If you want to examine a book for possible course use, please see our Course Books page. If you want to examine a book for possible rights licensing, please see Rights & Permissions.)
Of Related Interest
Sherwood
Anderson: A Writer in America, Volume 1
Walter B. Rideout
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January 2007
LC: 2005011164 PS
520 pp. 6 x 9 14 b/w photos
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