Sherwood Anderson

Sherwood Anderson was born in Camden, Ohio. Considered one of the great American writers, Anderson published a number of novels, short story collections, volumes of poetry, and memoirs during his lifetime, but he is best known for Winesburg, Ohio (1919). Set in a small Ohio town, the series of interconnected short stories influenced a generation of writers, including Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner.

In 1912, after facing mounting financial stress and unhappiness with business, Anderson, a factory owner, suffered what was described as a nervous breakdown. He wandered in a disoriented, trancelike state for four days, cut off from his normal life, and ended up in an Ohio hospital.

He abandoned his family, divorced, and moved to Chicago to join the literary renaissance there, focusing entirely on writing, which led to his masterpiece, Winesburg, Ohio.

Anderson often framed this event as a "mythic" break from a "materialistic existence," a story which gained him admiration from younger writers like Hemingway, though it was likely a genuine mental health crisis.