Winesburg, Ohio (1919) is Sherwood Anderson's masterpiece, a cycle of short stories concerning life in a small Ohio town at the end of the nineteenth century.

At the centre is George Willard, a young reporter who becomes the confidant of the town's 'grotesques' -- solitary figures unable to communicate with others. George is their conduit for expression and solace from loneliness, but he has his own longings which eventually draw him away from home to seek a career in the city. He carries with him the dreams and unuttered words of remarkable characters such as Wing Biddlebaum, the disgraced former teacher, and the story-telling Doctor Parcival.

Contents:

• Hands – concerning Wing Biddlebaum
• Paper Pills – concerning Doctor Reefy
• Mother – concerning Elizabeth Willard
• The Philosopher – concerning Doctor Parcival
• Nobody Knows – concerning Louise Trunnion
• Godliness, a Tale in Four Parts
  • I – concerning Jesse Bentley
  • II – also concerning Jesse Bentley
  • III Surrender – concerning Louise Bentley
  • IV Terror – concerning David Hardy
• A Man of Ideas – concerning Joe Welling
• Adventure – concerning Alice Hindman
• Respectability – concerning Walsh Williams
• The Thinker – concerning Seth Richmond
• Tandy – concerning Tandy Hard
• The Strength of God – concerning the Reverend Curtis Hartman
• The Teacher – concerning Kate Swift
• Loneliness – concerning Enoch Robinson
• An Awakening – concerning Belle Carpenter
• "Queer" – concerning Elmer Cowley
• The Untold Lie – concerning Ray Pearson
• Drink – concerning Tom Foster
• Death – concerning Doctor Reefy and Elizabeth Willard
• Sophistication – concerning Helen White
• Departure – concerning George Willard