Marching Men (1917) is a novel by Sherwood Anderson. Both fictional
and autobiographical, Anderson's second novel is a coming of age story
that explores the individual and collective identities shaping American
life. Although he is known today for his story collection Winesburg,
Ohio, a pioneering work of Modernist literature admired for its
plainspoken language and psychological detail, Anderson's Marching Men
is a powerful work of fiction that helped establish him as a leading
realist writer of his generation. "In a country of so many varied
climates and occupations as America it is absurd to talk of an American
type. The country is like a vast disorganised undisciplined army,
leaderless, uninspired, going in route-step along the road to they know
not what end." At a young age, Norman McGregor, a misfit dreamer, knows
this to be true of his country. Fourteen-year-old Norman, ironically
named "Beaut" for his homely appearance, works alongside his mother at a
bakery in the town of Coal Creek. When frustration over unpaid debts
leads him to close the bakery, a group of disgruntled miners nearly
destroys his family's only source of income. At the last second, a group
of soldiers marches in to protect them, inspiring Norman with a sense of
unity. As a young man, he leaves his hometown for Chicago, where he
develops a relationship with a woman who introduces him to politics and
labor organizing. Unable to shake the memory of the marching soldiers,
he dedicates his life to collective empowerment. Marching Men is a
story of the American Dream, for all of its difficult truths and
convenient fictions. With a beautifully designed cover and
professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Sherwood Anderson's
Marching Men is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern
readers.
