Winesburg, Ohio (1919), Anderson's collection of interlocking short stories set in a fictionalized Midwestern town, is considered his finest work.

The Triumph of the Egg (1921) is another classic short story collection written by Anderson. The fable-like title story is narrated by a child who openly fictionalizes an account of his father's failures.

Written by Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy (1925) traces the downfall of Clyde Griffiths. The story is a scathing indictment of American materialist values.

Main Street (1920), a novel by Sinclair Lewis, chronicles the story of a big-city girl who marries a small-town doctor. Lewis gently satirizes the provincial Minnesota setting, which is based on his own hometown.

The Nick Adams Stories (1972) are Ernest Hemingway's famous semi-autobiographical stories about his boyhood set mainly in rural Michigan. The Nick Adam stories were influenced by Anderson, sharing with his works autobiographical themes and...