Sherwood Anderson: Eleanor pays her respects

On this day, Sept. 13, in 1876, Sherwood Anderson was born. The writer who would influence Hemingway (and many others) and give advice to the young William Faulkner as he was writing his first novel in New Orleans, is a favorite here at This Side of Paradise. In particular, Anderson's book, Winesburg, Ohio, published in 1919.

Eleanor was conceived and born not far from the setting of Winesburg, Ohio -- Tiffin, Ohio is a short drive from Clyde (the thinly veiled town that Winesburg was based on). It's a shorter trip if you're a character, as Eleanor is, who can fly like Tinker Bell and be gone and return in the time it takes her Biographer to clear his throat.

"Let's find the part about everybody being like Christ and crucified," Eleanor says, and so we do.

Eleanor's Biographer has questions to ask, because she seems to identify so much with this passage, but he will wait until after dark to begin the asking.

*
Doctor Parcival began to plead with George Willard.
"You must pay attention to me," he urged. "If something
happens perhaps you will be able to write the book that
I may never get written. The idea is very simple, so
simple that if you are not careful you will forget it.
It is this--that everyone in the world is Christ and
they are all crucified. That's what I want to say.
Don't you forget that. Whatever happens, don't you dare
let yourself forget."
-- from "The Philosopher," in Winesburg, Ohio, by Sherwood Anderson (1919)