SOURCE: Chase, Cleveland B. “Anderson's Writings.” In Sherwood Anderson, pp. 46-73. New York: Robert M. McBride and Company, 1927.

In the following essay, Chase provides an overview of Anderson's later novels, essays, and poetry.

Later Novels

Anderson has so far published five novels; in addition to the two already discussed, there are Poor White, Many Marriages, and Dark Laughter. They are not good novels; not one of them, considered as a whole, compares with his better short stories. Yet they all contain episodes that are almost short stories in themselves and that, as episodes, hold their own with anything he has written.

Each of these novels wobbles annoyingly toward the end; in each one the hero's character, which is usually fairly convincing at the beginning, becomes more and more confused as the book progresses. In each of them there are several minor characters more convincing than those to whom...