To Sherwood Anderson, more than to any other American writer, belongs the distinction of having converted mere sectional writing into a universal experience.  As the interpreter of mid- Western life, he wrought a change in mood and method that was revolutionary.  His masterpiece, Winesburg, Ohio, became the forerunner of a new and vital school of contemporary writing. Its glowing humanity, its inescapable conviction of truth and its brooding, tender insight make it a book by which Anderson has earned a leading rank among the important novelists of America and certainly among the best of our storytellers.