Mid-American Chants

by Sherwood Anderson

TBD

Genres: Poetry

70 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1918

About the author

Often autobiographical, works of American writer Sherwood Anderson include Winesburg, Ohio (1919).

He supported his family and consequently never finished high school. He successfully managed a paint factory in Elyria before 1912 and fathered three children with the first of his four wives. In 1912, Anderson deserted his family and job.

In early 1913, he moved to Chicago, where he devoted more time to his imagination. He broke with considered materialism and convention to commit to art as a consequently heroic model for youth.

Mainly know for his short stories, most notably the collection Winesburg, Ohio. One can hear its profound influence on fiction in Ernest Miller Hemingway, William Faulkner, Thomas Clayton Wolfe, John Ernst Steinbeck, and Erskine Preston Caldwell.

Most important book collects 22 stories. The stories explore the inhabitants of a fictional version of Clyde, the small farm town, where Anderson lived for twelve early years. These tales made a significant break with the traditional short story. Instead of emphasizing plot and action, Anderson used a simple, precise, unsentimental style to reveal the frustration, loneliness, and longing in the lives of his characters. The narrowness of Midwestern small-town life and their own limitations stunt these characters.

Despite no wholly successful novel, Anderson composed several classic short stories. He influenced Francis Scott Key Fitzgerald and the coming generation.

Reviews

[La Stamberga dei Lettori · Rating 4 out of 5]

Definito da Fernanda Pivano il padre della letteratura americana moderna, e indicato quale fonte ispiratrice da molti storici autori americani come Faulkner, Hemingway, Fitzgerald, Steinbeck e Salinger, Sherwood Anderson nasce nel 1876 in un paesino di meno di mille anime in Ohio per trasferirsi in seguito a Chicago. Su Camden, quest'arcaico villaggio di agricoltori e allevatori, Anderson ricalcherà la Winesburg della sua opera più famosa, Winesburg. Racconti dell'Ohio, pubblicata nel 1919.

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[Bobby · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a super bizarre little book of poetry. I read the first poem and was drawn to its "midwestcentricity" and class slant, but it soon became clear that its over saturation with a few strange motifs (corn, for instance) is really too much to bear. It reads more like the sacred text of a long lost cult.

[Ciara Shook · Rating 3 out of 5]

The prose are rhythmic and casual, but the themes become redundant very fast. This makes the poems monotonous, and they become almost impossible to relate. I love Anderson, but do not take the opportunity to read this collection. I'd choose Winesburg, Ohio over Mid-American Chants any day.

[Silvia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Due stelle e mezzo.

[Sahizer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love the music that the poet creates, the kind of music soft somewhere between the wind and the sound of the industrial machines...

[Dustincecil · Rating 1 out of 5]

terrible. read like joke poems (all that corn)...

this was major disappointment, from an otherwise talenting writer..