Sherwood Anderson

I just finished reading the LEC Winesburg, Ohio and am excited enough to write at length about it. I give below some images of the LEC Winesburg, Ohio together with the Franklin Library Winesburg Ohio and the Library of America (LOA) collected short stories of Sherwood Anderson, which include all of Winesburg Ohio.




The title page of the LEC Winesburg, Ohio:


The table of contents of the LEC Winesburg, Ohio:



Many of the stories of the LEC edition of this book contain an illustration. However, some of my favorite stories did not contain an illustration.

One specific illustration that the LEC edition lacks is a rough map of Winesburg, Ohio; such a map is found in the LOA edition of Anderson's stories:



(to be continued)

When I read the first story, "Hands", I was a little stunned. It was so unlike anything I had read before. Little did I know that many of the stories in this book would be unlike anything I had come across before in literature.

The book comprises of stories involving emotionally wounded people, several of them emotionally or mentally unstable. My favorite stories were The Strength of God, The Teacher and Loneliness. I also found Drink, The Philosopher, Adventure, and Hands to be quite special. The four part Godliness was quite good, but I thought the end of the final story (Terror) was too contrived.

Loneliness reminded me of the movie A Beautiful Mind (about the mathematician John Nash). It is about a man living in a room in NYC who starts having hallucinations. He starts imagining people he has met previously are dwelling with him in this room. It was unclear whether the hallucinations are of an audio-visual nature (as in the movie A Beautiful Mind) or only audio whereby he hears the voices of these people (as in the book A Beautiful Mind on which the movie is based). Ultimately an incident occurs after which the man stops hallucinating and returns to his hometown, Winesburg Ohio.

The Strength of God is about a pastor in a church who has succumbed to temptation; he has become a peeping tom. He has developed this habit of peeping into the room of a young lady from a room at the very top of the church at which he preaches. It is understandable that this story does not contain any illustration which many would have found offensive.

The Teacher has as its main character the object of the pastor's attention.

The closing lines of The Philosopher contain what is possibly the general theme of this book:



A special feature in this story collection is that a peripheral character in one of the stories can become the central character in another story. Another feature of these stories is that they are plotless, that is, with no plots, in keeping with the school of short story writing according to which "a story should have no beginning and no end". The main emphasis in these stories is on the characters and character development and portrayal.

An excellent introduction to both Anderson and Winesburg Ohio are provided in this youtube interview:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WF-NktcNhE

The speaker, William Sutton, was a retired professor of English and a recognized expert on Anderson. He is the author of a literary biography about Anderson (titled 'The Road to Winesburg'), and the editor of the book 'Letters to Bab' which are letters that Anderson wrote to a woman who was his lover and later became his friend.

Thanks for an interesting read!

>1 blue.eyes2:

I have never understood the academic establishment's relative neglect of Winesburg, Ohio, which is possibly the most important fiction in the period between Henry James and F. Scott Fitzgerald. In all the courses for my B.A and M.A. in Literature, it was never a work studied or assigned.

>4 Django6924:

Yes, it's even weirder considering how barren American literature is during that period. There isn't a single other American author that comes to mind worth remembering.

>4 Django6924: The fickleness of the academic establishment is made clear by these words of Theodore Dreiser taken from volume 1 of Letters of Theodore Dreiser (in 3 volumes) edited by Robert Elias:

>5 MobyRichard: I believe Theodore Dreiser and Sinclair Lewis were Anderson's literary contemporaries.

I have a different Franklin Library edition of Winesburg, Ohio.

>8 just_visiting: I believe the Franklin Library published this book with different covers.

This is an extract from William Faulkner's interview with the Paris Review:

𝑰𝑵𝑻𝑬𝑹𝑽𝑰𝑬𝑾𝑬𝑹
𝑪𝒂𝒏 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒂𝒚 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓?
𝑭𝑨𝑼𝑳𝑲𝑵𝑬𝑹
𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒊𝒏 𝑵𝒆𝒘 𝑶𝒓𝒍𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒔, 𝒅𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒅 𝒐𝒇 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒂𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒏 𝒂 𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝒎𝒐𝒏𝒆𝒚 𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏. 𝑰 𝒎𝒆𝒕 𝑺𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒘𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝑨𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏. 𝑾𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒌 𝒂𝒃𝒐𝒖𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒄𝒊𝒕𝒚 𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒇𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒏𝒐𝒐𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒌 𝒕𝒐 𝒑𝒆𝒐𝒑𝒍𝒆. 𝑰𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒘𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒎𝒆𝒆𝒕 𝒂𝒈𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒊𝒕 𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒂 𝒃𝒐𝒕𝒕𝒍𝒆 𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒘𝒐 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒍𝒆 𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒂𝒍𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒅. 𝑰𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒆𝒏𝒐𝒐𝒏 𝑰 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒎. 𝑯𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒆𝒄𝒍𝒖𝒅𝒆𝒅, 𝒘𝒐𝒓𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒈. 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒙𝒕 𝒅𝒂𝒚 𝒘𝒆 𝒘𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒓𝒆𝒑𝒆𝒂𝒕. 𝑰 𝒅𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒂 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓, 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒎𝒆. 𝑺𝒐 𝑰 𝒃𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒐 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆 𝒎𝒚 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌. 𝑨𝒕 𝒐𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝑰 𝒇𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒇𝒖𝒏. 𝑰 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒈𝒐𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝑰 𝒉𝒂𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒔𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝑴𝒓. 𝑨𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒆 𝒘𝒆𝒆𝒌𝒔 𝒖𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒍 𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒅𝒐𝒐𝒓, 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒊𝒓𝒔𝒕 𝒕𝒊𝒎𝒆 𝒉𝒆 𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒆𝒆 𝒎𝒆, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅, “𝑾𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒘𝒓𝒐𝒏𝒈? 𝑨𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒎𝒂𝒅 𝒂𝒕 𝒎𝒆?” 𝑰 𝒕𝒐𝒍𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝑰 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒂 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌. 𝑯𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅, “𝑴𝒚 𝑮𝒐𝒅,” 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒂𝒍𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒐𝒖𝒕. 𝑾𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝑰 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌—𝒊𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝑺𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒊𝒆𝒓𝒔’ 𝑷𝒂𝒚—𝑰 𝒎𝒆𝒕 𝑴𝒓𝒔. 𝑨𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒆𝒕. 𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒂𝒔𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒃𝒐𝒐𝒌 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒈𝒐𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑰 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅 𝑰’𝒅 𝒇𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒅 𝒊𝒕. 𝑺𝒉𝒆 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅, “𝑺𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒘𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝒔𝒂𝒚𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒂 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒚𝒐𝒖. 𝑰𝒇 𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒐𝒆𝒔𝒏’𝒕 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒎𝒂𝒏𝒖𝒔𝒄𝒓𝒊𝒑𝒕 𝒉𝒆 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒖𝒃𝒍𝒊𝒔𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒑𝒕 𝒊𝒕.” 𝑰 𝒔𝒂𝒊𝒅, “𝑫𝒐𝒏𝒆,” 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕’𝒔 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝑰 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒂𝒎𝒆 𝒂 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓....

𝑰𝑵𝑻𝑬𝑹𝑽𝑰𝑬𝑾𝑬𝑹
𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒕 𝒇𝒆𝒆𝒍 𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒃𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝑺𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒘𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝑨𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏, 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒅𝒐 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒓𝒆𝒈𝒂𝒓𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒎 𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓?
𝑭𝑨𝑼𝑳𝑲𝑵𝑬𝑹
𝑯𝒆 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒚 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝑨𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒅𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝑨𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒉𝒊𝒄𝒉 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒔𝒖𝒄𝒄𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒐𝒓𝒔 𝒘𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒄𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒚 𝒐𝒏. 𝑯𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒅 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒓𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒓 𝒆𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏. 𝑫𝒓𝒆𝒊𝒔𝒆𝒓 𝒊𝒔 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒐𝒍𝒅𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒓𝒐𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝑻𝒘𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒎 𝒃𝒐𝒕𝒉.

----
Faulkner says something similar in his interactions with the students at the University of Virginia:

𝑼𝒏𝒊𝒅𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒊𝒇𝒊𝒆𝒅 𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒕𝒊𝒄𝒊𝒑𝒂𝒏𝒕: 𝑺𝒊𝒓, 𝒊𝒏 𝒍𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒇𝒓𝒊𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒔𝒉𝒊𝒑 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑺𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒘𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝑨𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏, 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒚𝒐𝒖, 𝒂𝒔 𝒂 𝒘𝒓𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓, 𝒊𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒃𝒕𝒆𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒊𝒎? 𝑶𝒓 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒐𝒇 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝑨𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆?

𝑾𝒊𝒍𝒍𝒊𝒂𝒎 𝑭𝒂𝒖𝒍𝒌𝒏𝒆𝒓: 𝑯𝒊𝒔—𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒏𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒓 𝒃𝒆𝒆𝒏 𝒈𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒏 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒊𝒏 𝑨𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒍𝒊𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒖𝒓𝒆. 𝑰𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝒉𝒆'𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇—𝒐𝒇 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒎𝒚 𝒈𝒆𝒏𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏: 𝑯𝒆𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒘𝒂𝒚, 𝑬𝒓𝒔𝒌𝒊𝒏𝒆 𝑪𝒂𝒍𝒅𝒘𝒆𝒍𝒍, 𝑻𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒂𝒔 𝑾𝒐𝒍𝒇𝒆, 𝑫𝒐𝒔 𝑷𝒂𝒔𝒔𝒐𝒔. 𝑶𝒇 𝒄𝒐𝒖𝒓𝒔𝒆, 𝑴𝒂𝒓𝒌 𝑻𝒘𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒊𝒔—𝒊𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒐𝒇 𝒐𝒖𝒓 𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒅𝒇𝒂𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓. 𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝑺𝒉𝒆𝒓𝒘𝒐𝒐𝒅 𝑨𝒏𝒅𝒆𝒓𝒔𝒐𝒏 𝒉𝒂𝒔, 𝒊𝒏 𝒎𝒚 𝒐𝒑𝒊𝒏𝒊𝒐𝒏, 𝒉𝒂𝒔 𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒐 𝒓𝒆𝒄𝒆𝒊𝒗𝒆 𝒉𝒊𝒔 𝒓𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒇𝒖𝒍 𝒑𝒍𝒂𝒄𝒆 𝒊𝒏—𝒊𝒏 𝑨𝒎𝒆𝒓𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒏 𝒍𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔.

William Faulkner on Sherwood Anderson

(click on the first link to obtain the transcript I posted, or play the audio to hear Faulkner speak. The other audio recordings are additional comments of Faulkner on Anderson.)

>10 blue.eyes2:
Thanks for this discussion. One lesson is that academics may be occasionally helpful but not the last word on anything.
This LEC is one I am actively looking for and I hope I can find a copy in comparable condition to yours.
Any comments on the Franklin volume?

>11 laotzu225:
Academics, and critics in general, can often be more harmful than helpful--even some very good critics (I'm thinking about James Agee on film). Time is usually the best judge of what is valuable and what is ephemeral. Melville's later novels have only comparatively recently been rightly considered and given their due. Twain, as was pointed out above, was considered just a popular writer of boy's books; only much later was it recognized he had a dark side which was revealed in passages of savage satire which rivaled Swift, and in the unfinished The Mysterious Stranger.

Dreiser is an odd case: often criticized as a stylist, his work has a power that transcends such relatively minor critical standards as a skillful prose style; his reputation, once high, then devalued in the mid-20th century, may be ascending again, as I hope Anderson may achieve his rightful place.

This discussion has gotten me curious. I've been aware of Anderson and this book for many years, but never felt compelled to read it...until now. But, since I'm not sure whether or not I will like the book, I've ordered a paperback copy, the Oxford World's Classics edition. We shall see!

>11 laotzu225: I placed the Franklin edition and the LOA together with the LEC volume since I wanted to highlight the fact that the Winesburg Ohio LEC is one of those oversized volumes. Some people like these kind of books, others don't since they find the book size comes in their way of reading the actual book.

The Franklin contains a few not particularly inspiring illustrations. In terms of ease of readability (taking into account font type, font size, and spacing between words) the Franklin is better than the LOA but not as good as the LEC. I tried alternating the LEC with the LOA while reading these stories occasionally and I was struck by how much more effort I had to put in to read the stories in the LOA edition (probably my eyes had gotten used to the LEC's font type, font size and spacing between the words).

>14 blue.eyes2: Thanks. One reason i have so few LOA books, despite their variety, is the small print and crowded pages.

I picked up Winesburg, Ohio a couple of months ago and had no expectations whatsoever. The quality of the narrative simply blew me away! I felt a little bit like, just finishing 1,000+ pages of War and Peace and wishing for more. The LEC is also worth acquiring. Large format, but not humongous, with lots of breathing space on the page. I bought my copy for $75 this year and I think it is a steal for this price. Unjustly neglected LEC.

>11 laotzu225:
Did you happen to win the one in glassine on eBay just the other day for 72 USD? Looked great (but had a prior owner’s blind stamp). I should have messaged you, I considered posting here but didn’t want to be the person attracting unwanted attention to an auction ; )

>17 GusLogan: Ha! Gus, I did. Exactly as described. I consider myself quite fortunate to have acquired it, especially for the price.
I'm not doing so well bidding on the H.G. Wells twofer though. There is someone (else) determined to get it.

>18 laotzu225:
Glad to hear it! And not a competitor for the Wells. It doesn’t seem out of hand just yet, price-wise, but I see what you mean…

>13 Glacierman: Let us know if you liked it, and if so, if there were any particular stories that appealed to you especially.

>16 BuzzBuzzard: One reason for the relatively lower price could be the slightly larger limitation number (1600) of this book. Were there any particular stories that appealed to you especially?

I looked around to see if there is any interview of Anderson I could find. I found this:

https://facultystaff.richmond.edu/~mspear/radio.html

I came across an interesting article about the friendship between Anderson and Valenti Angelo:

Sherwood Anderson and Valenti Angelo

Would have been nice to have had an LEC Winesburg illustrated by Angelo and with an introduction by Hemingway who had at one time been a friend of Anderson and whose first book ('In Our Time') was published in America with Anderson's help. It is true that Hemingway lampooned Anderson in 'The Torrents of Spring' but that was a satirical attack on Anderson's novel 'Many Marriages', and it was something Hemingway went on to regret in later life, blaming what he felt was his mistake on the impetuosity and righteousness of his youth. In Carlos Baker's biography of Hemingway, one finds a list of seventeen books (not eighteen, which I have seen in some online articles) for which Hemingway claimed he would be willing to forfeit a million dollars an year in return for the pleasure of reading these books for the first time and one of these is Winesburg Ohio. (Inexplicably, even though Baker gives seventeen titles, he writes that there are sixteen such books.) For the actual words used by Hemingway, see here:

https://kottke.org/12/03/a-list-of-ernest-hemingways-favorite-books

Winesburg, Ohio LEC is one of my favorites as well. I've recommended it to folks over at the FSD forum before, so I understand the excitement. Really nice paper, beautiful letterpress - deep so you really feel it, with the paper being thick enough so there is no effect on the other side, beautiful typesetting and typographical layout, really nice numerous black and white full-page illustrations. And it's been a fantastic deal throughout the years. I got my Fine copy for $29.99 back in 2018.

>6 blue.eyes2: Thanks for posting this snippet by Theodore Dreiser! I found it very interesting and curious on many levels. In particular, I'm not so sure that sniffing at Mark Twain as "a mere clown" really helped advancing Dreiser's point that Twain was "sniffed at" by the academia and the critics :)

As for Sidney Lanier receiving no recognition: if I go down my street to the end of my block, there will be Lanier Boulevard. The house I'll be moving to in several months after renovations are complete, very close to where I live now, will have Lanier Place as the crossing street on one end of the block. A short walk away is University Drive, named so because in the 1910s it was going to be the southern edge of the campus of a new University named after Lanier. Lanier University never materialized though because of financial issues; the only building that was completed was sold by the early 1920s, the rest of the campus land sold and divided into residential plots. An Olmstead-designed park 20-min walk/5-min drive away, the main park of my city, has a monument dedicated to Lanier. Lake Lanier, spread out in the suburbs/exurbs/country, is a large lake serving as the major source of water for much of the metro area as well as a recreation destination. So Sidney Lanier did have at least regional recognition (and my city is neither his birthplace nor a place where he ever lived and worked).

Nowadays I'm not sure how many local residents know who he was, let alone ever read his poetry, but once I did have a brief conversation about him with a random elderly couple while walking along Lanier Boulevard. Not sure what caused my wife and I to stop and talk to them (perhaps either their dog or our baby sparked a conversation, I do not remember now), and how it led to Sidney Lanier, but it did.

But I'm not sure if Lanier ever achieved national recognition outside of the South - would be curious to hear from the devotees from other regions. Since Dreiser wrote of him being neglected and not recognized, I assume not.

>24 elladan0891: I didn't like the words "mere clown" myself although Dreiser did throw in the caveat of "artistically by the side of Poe". Elsewhere in his letters, though, Dreiser writes that it is a misconception to think of Twain as something of a comedian and that he had a serious side. In particular, Dreiser refers to (and recommends) Twain's "What is Man?" which is a philosophical work. I don't have the volume of Dreiser's letters with me right now, but it would be good to check the date of when Dreiser wrote this letter. Since its in the first volume of the 3 volume letters (and these are just a selection of Dreiser's letters) it's possible this was written when Dreiser was relatively young and unacquainted with the full repertoire of Twain's writings.

By the way one valuable piece of information one can glean from these letters is Dreiser's recounting of the two separate occasions on which he personally met Twain. I think this letter or letters is in volume 3 of these letters.

As for Sidney Lanier, I believe Dreiser's point was that Lanier did not receive any recognition (neither by the critics nor the academics nor by the public) while he was alive. If Lanier Place and Lanier Boulevard and Lanier University were all named after Lanier's death it does not invalidate Dreiser's point although the belated posthumous recognition does make amends to some extent. This much said, is it not true that most literary people would be more likely to be familiar with the names of Emerson, Longfellow, Holmes, even perhaps Lowell? I knew all these names, but I first came across the name of Lanier in Dreiser's letter. Even the LEC never published a volume of the poems of Lanier, even though it published several American poets (including Longfellow).

I gave an extract from page 328 of the first volume of Dreiser's letters (in 3 volumes) edited by Robert Elias. If you notice, in the first paragraph of this page, Dreiser refers to someone being "standoffishly patronized" by Emerson, Holmes, Lowell, and a few others. Dreiser goes on to write that he believes this person was considered to be "dreadful" and a "low fellow" by Longfellow. The person being referred to here is Walt Whitman as per the previous page of this volume.

>25 blue.eyes2: although Dreiser did throw in the caveat of "artistically by the side of Poe"

I'm not so sure that was meant as a caveat/compliment :) Particularly when used in enumeration with "a mere clown" and "a compromiser with convention" :)

I understand that if you rate Poe highly, it's hard to see a comparison with Poe as a negative, or at least not a great positive, but I think it is in this case. At least to me personally, it's much easier to see it this way as I consider Twain to be steps above Poe artistically and, especially, as a writer overall.

But yes, Dreiser's paragraph on Twain is very interesting. Its contradictory nature is completely unexpected and makes it particularly memorable.

I also found it interesting that out of the writers he bunched together with "a score of others now entirely forgotten", those who unlike Twain were given long and serious estimates in the book on American literature, all except Louisa Alcott are now pretty much forgotten as well. And I don't think anyone would place Alcott anywhere near Twain nowadays, so he was spot on.

Yes, all of the places I mentioned were named after Lanier after his death, but that's to be expected - places are named after and monuments erected in honor of people usually after their death. But I didn't write that to invalidate Dreiser's point, just as a piece of information that I thought might be interesting, pointing that Lanier did achieve regional notoriety at least in the early 20th century. I know he was also celebrated in other Southern states as well, but as I wrote in the post above I suspect he never achieved similar notoriety on the national level. Curious if others here from different regions ever heard of him.

Btw, I'm not sure of the level of Lanier's recognition during his lifetime, even regionally. I'm not from the South originally (actually not even from the US), so don't have enough background knowledge. I do know Lanier himself was accepted into academia, becoming a professor of literature at John Hopkins in his thirties. I know he was published - his poetry, his retellings of various legends for kids, his lectures and academic work, but not sure about the level of popularity and recognition as well as how geographically widespread it was. But yes, I think it's safe to say he wasn't nearly as popular as Longfellow.

>26 elladan0891: I find Dreiser to be intellectually brilliant, but also somewhat abrasive occasionally. He doesn't mince his words. There is not much one can do about this but continue to pay attention to what he has said (whether you agree with him or not) since he is such an important literary figure.

With reference to Dreiser's claim that Twain was "a compromiser to convention" this is not easily dismissed since Sherwood Anderson happens to agree with this assertion. I give below extracts from some letters Anderson wrote to the critic Van Wyck Brooks who was doing research on a literary biography of Twain (which Anderson eventually did not like thinking it was too critical of Twain).

Just a comment or two on this interesting discussion:

1) In my high school American Literature textbook, Lanier was represented by his poems "Song of the Chatahoochie" and "The Marvelous Marshes of Glynn." In this, he was better represented than either Lowell or William Cullen Bryant who had a single poem apiece, and on a par with Emerson, but his portion was dwarfed by the number of included poems by Poe and Longfellow. I believe there are innumerable buildings, schools and monuments dedicated to Lanier, but perhaps mostly in the South, and perhaps the fact he served the Confederate cause has something to do with his later lack of recognition. (Of course for me, when you talk about American poetry in the 19th century, you have Whitman and, the "others." This is not to disparage the "others," but Whitman towers over them in a similar way to the way Shakespeare towers over Webster and Ford, Beaumont and Fletcher--and even Kit Marlowe.)

2) Can't quite understand the disparagement of Twain: Huckleberry Finn is one of the three or four indisputable classics of the American novel in the 19th century, and a closer reading of A Connecticut Yankee and Pudd'nhead Wilson reveals Twain as America's bitterest satirist. Of course neither Brooks nor Anderson nor even Dreiser were aware of the suppressed passages in Huck, Life on the Mississippi and the unfinished The Mysterious Stranger. It would be interesting to see how their opinion of him might have changed had they known these. Of course some literature takes a longer time and a different view of the world to be understood and appreciated properly (I'm thinking of Melville's brilliant The Confidence-Man which was almost universally misunderstood during the author's lifetime, and for a few decades afterwards, but is now getting its due.)

Sometimes I really wish writers would keep their opinions of other writers to themselves.

>28 Django6924: In my opinion Dreiser and Anderson did not question Twain's literary merit. They acknowledge the fact that Twain was a great writer. At the same time they argue that Twain did not achieve his full potential as writer because he was a compromiser to convention. Dreiser has given a detailed analysis of Twain and Twain's writings in this article (the article is free but you will have to register at the site to read it in full):

https://www.jstor.org/stable/804778?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

Dresier was aware of The Mysterious Stranger and refers to it in his article on Twain on multiple occasions.