Sherwood Anderson: An Appreciation of His Life and Fiction

It has been only in the past four decades that Americans have awakened to the fact that they could have a literature which is not dependent on any foreign country, particularly that of England. It has been only in this period of time that an interest has been awakened in the history of American letters and the reasons for their development along their specific lines. Without attempting to assign causes, it is at once in evidence that the literature of America, with only two exceptions, to the beginnings of realism is strongly tied to the literature of Europe, particularly to the Anglo-Saxon heritage found in English ancestry. Sherwood Anderson has been arbitrarily chosen for an illustration of the modern American naturalist. He pictures in his life, his philosophy, his technique, and his writings the essences of which realism in America is composed. In attempting to catch the individual characteristics of this author, I hope to show that America has gone far in developing a creative artist with a high standard of excellence, one who has not had to depend a great deal upon European literature for his background.