Sherwood Anderson was born the third of seven children in Camden, Ohio, on September 13, 1876. His father was locally renowned as a storyteller, and his brother Karl achieved success as a painter. Thus, from an early age Anderson was exposed to the arts. His father's changing financial fortunes caused the family to move several times; they finally settled in the village of Clyde, Ohio, which is the model for the village in Winesburg, Ohio. Anderson's education was sporadic and erratic. His formal education ended after one year at Wittenberg Academy, but his many jobs as newsboy, farmhand, and laborer gave him a lively awareness of small-town life and served as an inspiration for his fiction. He served for one year in the U.S. Army during the Spanish-American War, after which he began writing advertising copy in Chicago, which helped him to launch a successful business career...