Sherwood Anderson (1876-1941) was an American writer, whose works greatly influenced Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. His short stories revive the traditions of oral narration by introducing an extremely fragile and credible narrator, honest to a fault - and yet conscious of his audience and seeking to make an impression. He depicts the transitional moments in characters' lives moments of awakening and truth, buried under the layers of mundane immovability and sloth.