Death in the Woods

[1][2] Most of the stories in the collection were previously published either in magazines ("Why They Got Married" appeared in the March 1929 issue of Vanity Fair, for example, and "A Meeting South" was first published in The Dial of April 1925) and books (versions of "Death in the Woods" and "A Meeting South" were included in Tar: A Midwest Childhood and Sherwood Anderson's Notebook (both 1926), respectively).

According to John Earl Bassett, most of the stories in Death in the Woods were written between 1926 and 1930 with four preceding that time and one following.

Mrs. Grimes lives on the edge of society and survives by selling eggs and using the proceeds to buy food for herself, her small family and the animals in her care.

According to the narrator, the butcher was unusually friendly and compassionate on this visit (because of the snowy, cold weather), giving her some extra liver and speaking to her kindly.

A group of men and some boys, including the narrator, walk into the woods to examine the body and bring it back.

Our narrator set down his version of the story many years later, because he felt that his brother had not been able to properly and efficiently explain the events.