Howe, Irving, Sherwood Anderson, William Sloan Associates, 1951.

A highly readable critical biography by a man who admired Anderson's early works, and who was strongly disappointed by the later ones. Howe does not address "Hands" separately, but devotes a chapter to the influences and themes of Winesburg, Ohio. Still the most important book-length Anderson study.

Papinchak, Robert Allen, Sherwood Anderson: A Study of the Short Fiction, Twayne, 1992.

A thorough analysis of all of Anderson's short fiction. Papinchak uses "Hands" as an example to illustrate Anderson's "representative stylistic technique," citing the use of hands as a repeated symbol, and the author's clean and direct sentence style.

Small, Judy Jo, A Reader's Guide to the Short Stories of Sherwood Anderson, G. K. Hall, 1994.

In a useful chapter on "Hands," Small outlines circumstances of composition of the story, Ander son's sources and influences, the publication history, some connections between the...