Sherwood Anderson (September 13, 1876 - March 8, 1941) was an American writer, primarily of short stories, particularly the collection Winesburg, Ohio. His influence on American fiction was profound; his literary voice can be heard in Ernest Hemingway, William Faulkner, Thomas Wolfe, John Steinbeck, and others. He was born in Malverne, Ohio, the third of seven children of Erwin M. and Emma S. Anderson. After his father's business failed, they were forced to move frequently, finally settling in Clyde, Ohio in 1884. Family difficulties led his mother to begin drinking heavily, and his father died in 1895. Partly due to these events , Anderson was eager to take on odd jobs to help his family, earning him the nickname "Jobby", leaving school at 14. He moved to Chicago near his brother Karl's house. He worked as a laborer until near the turn of the century, when he joined the U.S. Army and was called up but did not see action in Cuba during the Spanish-American War. After the war in 1900, he attended Wittenberg University in Springfield, Ohio. He eventually secured a job as a copywriter in Chicago, where he was very successful. In 1904 he married Cornelia Lane, the daughter of a wealthy Ohio family. He had three children while living in Cleveland, Ohio, and later in Elyria, where he operated a mail order business and paint companies. In November 1912 he disappeared, but reappeared four days later after having suffered a nervous breakdown. He described it as "an escape from his materialistic existence", which garnered praise from many other writers, who used his "courage" as an example. He returned to Chicago, again working for the publishing and advertising company. In 1914 he divorced Cornelia Lane and married Tennessee Mitchell. In the same year his first novel, The Son of Windy McPherson, was published. Three years later his second major work, Marching Men, was published. However, he is probably most famous for his collection of works, begun in 1915, known as Winesburg, Ohio. Its themes are compared to those of T. S. Eliot and many other similar modernists. Although his stories, especially the ones mentioned above, were very successful, he felt the need to write novels. In 1920 he published Poor White, a moderately successful novel. He wrote several novels before divorcing Mitchell in 1922 and marrying Elizabeth Prall two years later. In 1923, Anderson published Many Marriages, the themes of which he would carry over into much of his subsequent writings..