A High School Teaching Plan for “Winesburg, Ohio”

Recently I completed some coursework to renew my license to teach English language arts to grades seven through twelve in the state of Ohio. One of the courses I completed was on teaching American fiction, which involved assignments centered on two books. The books I chose were Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio and Willa Cather’s My Antonia.…

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“Winesburg, Ohio” at 100

In the fall of 1915, Sherwood Anderson was working as a copywriter in Chicago and living in a rented room that overlooked the Loop. Anderson enjoyed the view from his window and had moved his bed closer to it so he could see the vista of Chicago below him—the great Midwestern city where he had…

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1918: Some Books From A Century Ago

1918. On November 11 of this year the First World War finally came to an end. Millions had died in the conflict that began in August of 1914, and large sections of France and Belgium were nothing but wasteland after years of battle. But the end of the conflict was welcome news across the globe.…

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“Autumn” from Sherwood Anderson’s “Home Town”

Autumn—the mellow golden time of falling leaves, cider, apples, and pumpkins. The year’s decline and a farewell to summer’s heat and languor. Long hazy days, the time of “mist and mellow fruitfulness.” In the great Midwest the trees are in color and the corn and soy are harvested, leaving bare fields full of stubble to…

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“Winter” from Sherwood Anderson’s “Home Town”

Winter: the quiet time. A season of stillness after the autumn and the holidays. A time for snow, for cold, for long hours indoors as we await the spring’s return. Sometimes it’s raw and rainy. At other times the earth is blanketed with silence and snowfall, and some winters are mild, sometimes mild enough that…

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“Summer” From Sherwood Anderson’s “Home Town”

Summertime. The good ol’ summertime. Time for vacation, barbecues, long hours by the water. Corn on the cob and homegrown tomatoes, hot dogs and hamburgers, root beer and iced tea. The sounds of lawnmowers, kids splashing in the pool, a crowd at a baseball game. In my part of the midwest–southwestern Ohio– it can start…

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“Spring” from Sherwood Anderson’s “Home Town”

Sherwood Anderson published a book called Home Town shortly before departing for Latin America in March of 1941 to write articles for Reader’s Digest about Latin American nations and people. He was also traveling as a kind of unofficial goodwill ambassador for the U.S. State Department as the threat of war intensified for the United States. It…

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