CLYDE, Ohio — For years after the 1919 publication of Winesburg, Ohio, residents of Clyde bristled at author Sherwood Anderson’s depiction of their city and townspeople they thought they recognized in the book’s lauded pages.

It’s long been understood that the Sandusky County city where Mr. Anderson spent his youth served as the setting for the book, which claimed the No. 24 spot on the Modern Library list of 100 Best Novels.

Despite the literary recognition, many in Clyde despised Mr. Anderson’s fictional version of the small town he renamed Winesburg. Some described the collection of stories, and its contents, as “dirty.”

But in recent decades, Clyde has touted its connection to the famous writer, organized tours for high school English classes, and erected a historical marker in his honor.

The same book a newspaper columnist once described as “about as popular” in Clyde as poison ivy is now a point of pride — so much so that the mayor plans to proclaim Saturday as Sherwood Anderson Day.

The recognition marks the author’s Sept. 13, 1876, birthday, and Sept. 13 will “henceforth from this day forward” be set aside in Clyde to honor the novelist, according to Mayor Scott Black’s proclamation.

“We went from keeping his work under lock and key to wholeheartedly embracing him,” Mayor Black said.

The Clyde Museum will throw a birthday party for the writer from 1 to 4 p.m. Saturday, when Mayor Black will read the proclamation. The event also features special exhibits, self-guided downtown walking tours, and the launch of a book about Mr. Anderson and his pals by local author Dorothy Davis Cox.

“One of the reasons we are doing it is because it is important to bring history to a new generation,” said Brenda Stultz, museum curator.

Mr. Anderson was born in Camden, Ohio, and his family moved to Clyde in 1884, when he was 7 or 8 years old. He grew up and attended school there, although he dropped out before graduation.

He earned the nickname “Jobby” because of the many odd jobs he picked up, including selling newspapers at the former railroad depot.

An Ohio Historical Marker was erected at the site in 2003 to remember Mr. Anderson.

In 1895, he joined the Ohio National Guard. The same year, his mother, Emma Anderson, died. She is buried in Clyde’s McPherson Cemetery, which Ms. Stultz visits yearly to place daffodils on her grave.

The family moved often, and his mother was known to sit on the stoop and wonder if the daffodils would bloom that spring before they moved again.

Mr. Anderson left Clyde following his mother’s death and later served during the Spanish-American War. After his first marriage, he moved to Cleveland for work and then to Elyria, where he ran a successful company. He famously left his business and family to devote himself to writing.

Mr. Anderson wrote Winesburg, Ohio in Chicago. He consulted a railroad map before selecting the name, and seeing no stop for a place called Winesburg, settled on it as the title.

The Clyde Museum will display an exhibit about the real but unrelated Winesburg, located in Holmes County’s Amish country.

The author’s reputation as a “rogue, colorful playboy” perhaps further alienated those he left behind in more conservative Clyde, Mayor Black said.

Local readers recognized many places described in the novel as belonging to their hometown. Mr. Anderson reimagines the former Hurd’s Grocery Store as the similar sounding Hern’s. The Presbyterian church on West Forest Street, where a fictional reverend peeps at a naked neighbor and goes through self-castigation after the event, is a popular stop for student groups touring sites from the book.

The Clyde Heritage League, which operates the museum, formed an Anderson committee last summer to offer book-related tours of Clyde. It also planned Saturday’s celebration.

Committee chairman Sandy French believes the book has brought the city plenty of positive attention. Mr. Anderson’s work influenced Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner, among other masters of American literature.

Clyde, in Mr. Anderson’s boyhood, differed greatly from the current city of about 6,300 people.

“It was an innocent time, and everybody trusted everybody else, pretty much,” said Mrs. Cox, a local historian who recently finished the book The Boys from Clyde.

She combed through historical records, newspaper stories, and other sources to write the book about Mr. Anderson, who died in 1941; his brother, the painter Karl Anderson, and several other boys they grew up with.

Her goal is to spark a fresh interest in the author and Clyde’s history. It’s a town that seems to have very much forgiven any slights once felt from the association with Winesburg, Ohio.

“Clyde’s not a big city. Eventually you are going to ... embrace the people who made you famous,” Mayor Black said.

Contact Vanessa McCray at: vmccray@theblade.com or 419-724-6065, or on Twitter @vanmccray.

First Published September 7, 2014, 4:00 a.m.