Events for: National Park Boott Events Center, second floor

Sunday
11/14
2021
2:00 pm

Jack Curtis: “Travel to Winesburg, Ohio: Sherwood Anderson’s Literary Masterpiece”

Published in 1919, Sherwood Anderson’s Winesburg, Ohio met with instant acclaim: H.L. Mencken wrote, “Here is a new order of short story – so vivid, so full of insight, so shining life-like, and glowing.” The collection of 22 short stories probed the hopes, dreams and fears of a small mid-western town in the 1880s with startling frankness and realism. It ushered American literature into the modern age, impacting novelists from Hemingway, Faulkner and Steinbeck to Philip Roth and Elizabeth Strout. The lecture will explore the book's engaging characters, themes, style and portrayal of the human condition and discuss why the book endures. It will also touch on Anderson’s life and the works of his descendants. The lecturer (OR: Mr. Curtis) suggests reading or listening to Wineburg, Ohio's opening sections,  "The Book of the Grotesque." and "Hands" before the lecture. (OPTIONAL: Each story is seven pages.) -- Text (scroll past introduction)
https://www.fulltextarchive.com/page/Winesburg-Ohio1/#p12
-- Free Recordings "The Book of Grotesque": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUNrHS7tAs8 "Hands": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUXgC9zEw2o  
NOTE: Limited to 18 guests and mask wearing is mandatory. Call 978-970 5000 to reserve you spot.