The 20th century in American literature is an important period when new genres began to appear, and existing, but previously unappreciated, directions developed.
US Literature in the 20th Century: Major Genres and Authors
In the 1900s, literature in the United States belonged to such authors as Ernest Hemingway, Francis Scott Fitzgerald, Vladimir Nabokov, Ray Bradbury and others. The genres of horror literature were popular (one of the most famous writers who worked in this direction is Howard Lovecraft) and science fiction (Isaac Asimov, Robert Sheckley, Philip Dick).
The works of this period began to raise topics that were considered forbidden and forbidden for discussion. Jerome Salinger's book “The Catcher in the Rye” caused a stir in society - it was removed from the libraries of American schools, which led to the opposite effect and only increased interest in the novel and its protagonist Holden Caulfield.
One of the 20th century American authors is prose writer Sherwood Anderson. Despite the fact that his name is not well known, his novels and novels are today considered a model of literature and have served as inspiration for many more popular authors.
Sherwood Anderson: biography
The future writer was born on September 13, 1876 in Camden, Ohio. Sherwood Anderson 's father was a representative of the working class - he worked as a saddler.
When the boy was 7 years old, the family moved to the village of Clyde. The writer later indirectly mentioned this place in his work Winesburg, Ohio.
At this time, the country was in an economic crisis. After the death of his father, Sherwood Anderson was forced to drop out of school to provide for his mother, his brothers and sisters. The writer’s mother later died, and Sherwood Anderson went to Chicago. The Spanish-American war began, the young man was called up for service.
Returning from the army, Anderson decided to continue his education and entered the Wittenberg College. After that, I began to try myself in writing short stories and short essays. In 1910, Sherwood Anderson also began writing novels. Two years later, he suffered a severe nervous breakdown.
Throughout his life, Sherwood Anderson was married to 4 women. The writer died in 1941 from peritonitis during a trip to South America with his last wife, Eleanor Couperhaver.
Not so many photos of Sherwood Anderson are made public. For example, his most recognizable photograph was taken in 1933 by Karl Van Wechten, another writer of the time.
Creativity: novels
The first large-scale work of the writer is considered the novel "The Windy MacPherson's Son", written in 1916. The protagonist is a boy living in Iowa.
A year later, Anderson's second work, The Marching Man, was published, telling about the life of an ordinary worker in the industrial era. A similar idea - human nature against an industrial society aspiring to order and organization - is also present in the most famous work of the writer Winesburg, Ohio. The prototype of the scene was the village of Clyde, so the novel in a sense can be considered autobiographical.
Other works by Sherwood Anderson include the novels “The White Poor” (1920), “Dark Laughter” (1925), “Many Marriages” (1923) and others.
Short stories
A significant part of Sherwood Anderson’s work is novels, on the basis of which one can fully appreciate the talent of the writer. These short works are considered some of the finest examples of 20th century American literature.
Based on the short stories The Egg Triumph (1921), Horses and People (1923), Death in the Forest (1933), Thomas Wolfe, Robert Faulkner, John Steinbeck and others created their masterpieces. Ernest Hemingway in his novel Spring Water (1926) parodies the receptions of other famous writers, and especially Sherwood.