In
Stein, Gender, Isolation, and Industrialism: New Readings of Winesburg, Ohio, I consider Gertrude Stein, gender roles, gay subtext, the machine in the garden, feelings of isolation, and attempts at communication, as they all relate to Sherwood Anderson's masterpiece. You can order it through most bookstores. Libraries can order it through the distributor Ingram Books; the ISBN is 158348338. Read more about this book at
bn.com,
Fishpond.co.aus,
Fishpond.co.nz,
Kalahari,
Amazon.com,
Amazon.Ca, or
Amazon.co.UK.
“Refreshing, interesting and educating.” –Amos Lassen, Literary Pride
“What a pleasure to read a dissertation embracing the poetry and passion of simple language as well as the art of old-fashioned story-telling exemplified by the often underrated Sherwood Anderson.” –Watchword
“This work should be required reading in any college course involving the art and craft of short-story writing as well as in courses on Sherwood Anderson, himself. I found the greatest pleasure in reading a while from Simolke's work, then reading from Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio. Simolke's book is a great reading guide, as well as a thoughtful and measured reading experience all by itself.” –Ronald L. Donaghe, author of Uncle Sean
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CH. I INTRODUCTION
CH. II ANDERSON AND STEIN: SYMBIOSIS
CH. III TEACHERS GROPING IN THE DARK
CH. IV MEN AND WOMEN
CH. V "MORE THAN MAN OR WOMAN"
CH. VI INDUSTRIALISM: THE MACHINE IN THE BERRY FIELD
CH. VII CONCLUSION: CLOSING THE BOOK OF THE GROTESQUE
BIBLIOGRAPHY
From CHAPTER II
ANDERSON AND STEIN: SYMBIOSIS
As I begin to reevaluate the place of Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio in the development of American fiction, I first want to look at Anderson's symbiotic relationship with Gertrude Stein, a relationship most Stein devotees will know about through her The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas, in which Stein pretends to write as her lover, Alice. Anyone interested in Stein or Anderson should also read Sherwood Anderson/Gertrude Stein, edited by Ray Lewis White. This book features chronological excerpts from their letters to each other and from their published comments about each other.
Anderson apparently came to love Stein through some of her portraits and through her 1909 book Three Lives. Stein generated considerable controversy with Lives, a controversy she would sustain with her subsequent works. In writing about the critical reactions to her prose, she sounds as frustrated as Anderson often felt, and much of what she says about her frustration could apply to Anderson, who appears prominently and constantly in literary anthologies and literary history books, yet continues to receive the label "marginal.” Stein says the newspapers claim "that my writing is appalling but they always quote it and what is more, they quote it correctly, and those they say they admire they do not quote" (Alice 70). The newspapers, however, reflected the general public, who found Stein's work fascinating and repulsive.
(Entry updated 2/19/10.)
