Versions of loneliness in the short story

Richard yates's great collection of short stories is called something like 11 forms of loneliness and that can stand as a template for much of American lit Especially short stories in that practically every america short story is aversion of loneliness (more so in novels in that stories tend to have narrower cast of characters and therefor tend to focus on a single character in isolation rather in social interaction). Really thinking about this in reading Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio, in the  Library of America collected stories - it could well be called 25 forms of loneliness. Each one involves a person with shattered dreams foiled aspirations misunderstood and misused - social outsiders one after another. E.g. story I just finished about a teenage girl who gives her virginity up to a newspaper reporter in this small town. He moves on to chicago and writes to her for a time but eventually ignores her tho she keeps waiting for him till at last at the "old" age of 27 she realizes she will be alone forever. this story v typical of the collection - these many character in a small town where we would expect a strong sense of community and social ties but in fact we see these many lives of quiet desperation barely touching. Each man and woman is an island. I think the reason Anderson's reputation has not really endured over the years may be because of the heavy-handed nature of his work - the theme is obvious and repeated throughout but tho each time w different topical details the same mood prevails. Writers who treat loneliness w greater complexity and extremity - Chekhov, carver, and Hemingway to cite 3 v different examples - are more widely read and respected: think of the diff in the composition of loneliness say between the lady w the lap dog , the guy in the hotel room in clean well-lighted space, and the family w the dead son in Carver's great story about the birthday cake - each expressed so differently, each version of loneliness seen as a unique incident and not part of and endless cycle of repetition. Anderson led the way but others have taken the theme much further and deeper.