Sherwood Anderson (1876–1941), a brilliant short story writer and recognized classic of American literature, grew up in a small town in the Midwest, in a poor family. He was a soldier, a factory manager, a publisher, an editor. His literary fame was brought to him by the cycle of stories “Winesburg, Ohio” (1919) about the life of the American province of the early 20th century. The strange destinies of the heroes, their unusual characters, reflected the understanding of human nature and the entire life experience of the writer. Anderson's work had a huge influence on the development of American literature, on the formation of such masters as Hemingway, Faulkner, Steinbeck.