The Death of Sherwood Anderson
Peritonitis: Inflammation of the peritoneum. Peritoneum: The membrane lining the walls of the abdominal cavity. In other words: Warning! Be careful when drinking martinis in the Panama Canal. Chew every olive carefully. Beware of renegade toothpicks. In 1941 Sherwood Anderson popped his peritoneum with a piece of a toothpick trapped in a martini olive. What a bizarre way to go! So bizarre in fact, I don’t think it would even function as an ending for one of his stories.
In Wineburg, Ohio it is exactly of these kinds of crystallized situations that he has written. Alcohol and death may be a common tragedy, with kids learning how to drive cars before they learn how to drink—but a martini! in the Panama Canal! It’s so tragic it’s funny; so studded with glasses held at toasts as the ship sailed south, with the pleasure of drunken evenings on star struck nights, that the death becomes a natural slip of the frame.
Sherwood Anderson was a writer of the old line, I’m tempted to say, one of the last few who knew how to write. It came out of him, poetic and clear, in fits of inspiration as his fingers pounded over his typewriter. What rain-cloud of society hung over him departed; he was a free man, he was free in vision, free in life and heart. What little I have gleamed from his writing was that he lived life furiously, he lived through all the ages. I wonder what other works he may have created.
Martini Olive! Remember to chew and if you don’t chew well be sure that the time between then and now is lived furiously and free.
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