A cursory google search defines anecdote as a short account of a particular incident or event, especially of an interesting or amusing nature or a short, obscure historical or biographical account. Another fruitful search returns a result detailing the etymological route of anecdote as being to give out or publish - something not published. The telling of an anecdote becomes a performative act; it is the offering, sharing, and circulation of personal experience, an act of self distribution.
He [Frank Popper] had taken a reproduction of a cezanne painting and cut it up into squares about so big: this he had classified according to tone and colour with surprising visual results, (i.e you saw the colour out of context) (Ted Odling Letter to Harry Barnes 3 November 1965)