front cover of Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson
A Writer in America, Volume 1
Walter B. Rideout
University of Wisconsin Press, 2006

    Sherwood Anderson: A Writer in America is the definitive biography of this major American writer of novels and short stories, whose work includes the modern classic Winesburg, Ohio. In the first volume of this monumental two-volume work, Walter Rideout chronicles the life of Anderson from his birth and his early business career through his beginnings as a writer and finally to his move in the mid-1920s to “Ripshin,” his house near Marion, Virginia. The second volume will cover Anderson’s 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 friends and family members, or as complete in its vision of the man and the writer. The result is an unparalleled biography—one that locates the private man, while astutely placing his life and writings in a broader social and political context.

Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine
 
Winner, Biography Award, Society of Midland Authors
[more]

front cover of Sherwood Anderson
Sherwood Anderson
A Writer in America, Volume 2
Walter B. Rideout
University of Wisconsin Press, 2006
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.


Outstanding Book, selected by the American Association of School Librarians, and Best Books for General Audiences, selected by the Public Library Association

Outstanding Academic Title, Choice Magazine

Winner, Biography Award, Society of Midland Authors
[more]

front cover of Sherwood Anderson and Other Famous Creoles
Sherwood Anderson and Other Famous Creoles
A Gallery of Contemporary New Orleans
Drawings by William Spratling
Text by William Faulkner
University of Texas Press, 1966

"When Bill Faulkner came to New Orleans he was a skinny little guy, three years older than I, and was not taken very seriously except by a few of us." Thus the late William Spratling, popularly known as the Taxco "Silver King," recalled the mid-1920's, when Faulkner, a young man fresh from Oxford, Mississippi, roomed with Spratling in Pirates Alley.

"By the time I would be up, say at seven, Bill would already be out on the little balcony over the garden tapping away on his portable, an invariable glass of alcohol-and-water at hand."

A result of their friendship was a book depicting "various people who were then engaged … with the arts in New Orleans." It was based on firsthand observation.

"There were casual parties with wonderful conversation and with plenty of grand, or later to be grand, people." Some of the names, in addition to Sherwood Anderson, were Horace Liveright, Carl Van Doren, Carl Sandberg, John Dos Passos, Anita Loos, and Oliver La Farge.

Spratling supplied sharp caricatures of the people and Faulkner contributed succinct captions and a Foreword. It was all "sort of a private joke," but the four hundred copies were sold within a week and the original edition is now a collector's item. This book is a charming reminder of exciting days and talented people.

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