Requiem for a Wanderer: Sherwood Anderson’s Last Days

The following narrative sets forth the events surrounding the death of American author Sherwood Anderson (1876–1941), which occurred on March 8, 1941, in the Canal Zone. Although often cited in broad terms, Anderson’s bizarre demise has never been presented as a full- blown episode in a life and career characterized by the unconventional. Though possessing little formal education, Anderson had developed a prodigious native talent by means of voracious reading and unrelenting experimentation. Anderson published actively until his death and was well along on his memoirs when he died in 1941. His memoirs appeared posthumously in the following year.