Winesburg, Ohio. Sherwood Anderson

A little-known masterpiece, this cycle of short stories concerns life in a small town at the end of the nineteenth century and forever changed the course of American storytelling. Bittersweet and richly insightful, it reveals Sherwood Anderson's special talent for taking small moments and transforming them into timeless folk tales-a talent that inspired a generation of writers including William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway, and John Steinbeck. At the center of this collection of stories stands George Willard, an earnest young reporter for The Winesburg Eagle who sets out to gather the town's daily news. He ends up discovering the town's deepest secrets as, one by one, the townsfolk confide their hopes, dreams, and fears to the reporter. In their recollections of first loves and last rites, of sprawling farms and winding country roads, the town rises vividly-and poignantly-to life. With polished prose and fresh imagery, Winesburg, Ohio is an American classic that celebrates small town lif e in the lost days of i