Robert Penn Warren

Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 – September 15,

1989) was an American poet, novelist, and literary Robert Penn Warren
critic and was one of the founders of New Criticism.
He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of
Southern Writers. He founded the literary journal The
Southern Review with Cleanth Brooks in 1935. He
received the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel for All
the King's Men (1946) and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
in 1958 and 1979. He is the only person to have won
Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and poetry.[1]

Early years
Warren was born in Guthrie, Kentucky, very near the
Tennessee-Kentucky border, to Robert Warren and Warren in 1968
Anna Penn.[2] Warren's mother's family had roots in Born April 24, 1905
Virginia, having given their name to the community of Guthrie, Kentucky, U.S.
Penn's Store in Patrick County, Virginia, and she was a Died September 15, 1989 (aged 84)
descendant of Revolutionary War soldier Colonel Stratton, Vermont, U.S.
Abram Penn.[3] Occupation Writer, critic
Education Vanderbilt University (BA)
After he had graduated from a private high school at
age 15, his mother enrolled him in Clarksville High University of California,
School in Clarksville, Tennessee for a year because she Berkeley (MA)

thought he was too young to go to college. In 1921 his Yale University

left eye was removed as the result of an accident with New College, Oxford (BLitt)
his brother, which canceled his appointment to the U.S. Genre Poetry, novels
Naval Academy. That summer, he published in "The Notable Pulitzer Prize for the Novel
Messkit" his first poem "Prophecy." In the fall of 1921, awards (1947)
at age 16, he entered Vanderbilt University in
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (1958,
Nashville, Tennessee, graduating in the summer of 1979)
1925 summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, and
Bollingen Prize (1967)
Founder's Medalist. That fall, he entered the University
Robert Frost Medal (1985)
of California, Berkeley, as a graduate student and
teaching assistant, and upon receiving his M.A. in Spouse Emma "Cinina" Brescia (1929–
1927, entered Yale University on a fellowship. In 1951)
October 1928 he entered New College, Oxford, in Eleanor Clark (1952 – his
England as a Rhodes Scholar and received his B.Litt. death)
in the spring of 1930. He also received a Guggenheim Fellowship to study in Italy during the rule of
Benito Mussolini. That same year he began his teaching career at Southwestern College (now Rhodes
College) in Memphis, Tennessee.

Career
While still an undergraduate at Vanderbilt University, Warren became associated with the group of poets
there known as the Fugitives, and somewhat later, during the early 1930s, Warren and some of the same
writers formed a group known as the Southern Agrarians. He contributed "The Briar Patch" to the
Agrarian manifesto I'll Take My Stand along with 11 other Southern writers and poets (including fellow
Vanderbilt poet/critics John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, and Donald Davidson). In "The Briar Patch" the
young Warren defends racial segregation, in line with the political leanings of the Agrarian group,
although Davidson deemed Warren's stances in the essay so progressive that he argued for excluding it
from the collection.[4] However, Warren recanted these views in an article on the civil rights movement,
"Divided South Searches Its Soul", which appeared in the July 9, 1956 issue of Life magazine. A month
later, Warren published an expanded version of the article as a small book titled Segregation: The Inner
Conflict in the South.[5] He subsequently adopted a high profile as a supporter of racial integration. In
1965, he published Who Speaks for the Negro?, a collection of interviews with black civil rights leaders
including Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr., thus further distinguishing his political leanings from
the more conservative philosophies associated with fellow Agrarians such as Tate, Cleanth Brooks, and
particularly Davidson. Warren's interviews with civil rights leaders are at the Louie B. Nunn Center for
Oral History at the University of Kentucky.[6]

Warren's best-known work is All the King's Men, a novel that won the Pulitzer Prize in 1947. Main
character Willie Stark resembles Huey Pierce Long (1893–1935), the radical populist governor of
Louisiana whom Warren was able to observe closely while teaching at Louisiana State University in
Baton Rouge from 1933 to 1942. The 1949 film by the same name was highly successful, starring
Broderick Crawford and winning the Academy Award for Best Picture in 1949. There was another film
adaptation in 2006 featuring Sean Penn as Willie Stark. The opera Willie Stark by Carlisle Floyd, to his
own libretto based on the novel, was first performed in 1981.

Warren served as the Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, 1944–1945 (later termed Poet
Laureate), and won two Pulitzer Prizes in poetry, in 1958 for Promises: Poems 1954–1956 and in 1979
for Now and Then. Promises also won the annual National Book Award for Poetry.[7]

In 1974, the National Endowment for the Humanities selected him for the Jefferson Lecture, the U.S.
federal government's highest honor for achievement in the humanities. Warren's lecture was entitled
"Poetry and Democracy" (subsequently published under the title Democracy and Poetry).[8][9] In 1977,
Warren was awarded the St. Louis Literary Award from the Saint Louis University Library
Associates.[10][11] In 1980, Warren was presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President
Jimmy Carter. In 1981, Warren was selected as a MacArthur Fellow and later was named as the first U.S.
Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry on February 26, 1986. In 1987, he was awarded the National Medal of
Arts.[12] Warren was an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the
American Philosophical Society.[13][14]
Warren was co-author, with Cleanth Brooks, of Understanding Poetry, an influential literature textbook.
It was followed by other similarly co-authored textbooks, including Understanding Fiction, which was
praised by Southern Gothic and Roman Catholic writer Flannery O'Connor, and Modern Rhetoric, which
adopted what can be called a New Critical perspective.

Personal life
His first marriage was to Emma Brescia.[15] His second marriage was in 1952 to Eleanor Clark, with
whom he had two children, Rosanna Phelps Warren (born 1953) and Gabriel Penn Warren (born 1955).
During his tenure at Louisiana State University he resided at Twin Oaks (otherwise known as the Robert
Penn Warren House) in Prairieville, Louisiana.[16] He lived the latter part of his life in Fairfield,
Connecticut, and Stratton, Vermont, where he died of complications from prostate cancer. He is buried at
Stratton, Vermont, and, at his request, a memorial marker is situated in the Warren family gravesite in
Guthrie, Kentucky.

Legacy
In April 2005, the United States Postal Service issued a commemorative stamp to mark the 100th
anniversary of Warren's birth. Introduced at the post office in his native Guthrie, it depicts the author as
he appeared in a 1948 photograph, with a background scene of a political rally designed to evoke the
setting of All the King's Men. His son and daughter, Gabriel and Rosanna Warren, were in attendance.

Vanderbilt University houses the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, which is sponsored by
the College of Arts and Science.[17] It began its programs in January 1988, and in 1989 received a
$480,000 Challenge Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. The Center promotes
"interdisciplinary research and study in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences."

The high school that Robert Penn Warren attended, Clarksville High School (Tennessee), was renovated
into an apartment complex in 1982. The original name of the apartments was changed to The Penn
Warren in 2010.[18]

In 2014 Vanderbilt University opened the doors to Warren College, one of the first 2 residential colleges
at the university, along with Moore College.

He was a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers.

Works

Poems
Old and Blind (1931)
Thirty-Six Poems (Alcestis Press; December 3, 1935 in a limited edition of 165 copies)
Eleven Poems on the Same Theme (1942)
Selected Poems, 1923–1943 (1944)
 Brother to Dragons: A Tale in Verse and Voices (1953)
Promises: Poems: 1954–1956 (1957)
You, Emperors, and Others: Poems 1957–1960 (1960)
Selected Poems: New and Old 1923–1966 (1966)
Incarnations: Poems 1966–1968 (1968)
Audubon: A Vision (1969). Book-length poem
Or Else: Poem/Poems 1968–1974 (1974)
Selected Poems: 1923–1975 (1976)
Now and Then: Poems 1976–1978 (1978)
Brother to Dragons: A Tale in Verse and Voices – A New Version (1979)
Being Here: Poetry 1977–1980 (1980)
Rumor Verified: Poems 1979–1980 (1981)
Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce (1983). Book-length poem
New and Selected Poems: 1923–1985 (1985)
Portrait of a Father (1988)
The Collected Poems (1998), edited by John Burt
The Poets Laureate Anthology (W. W. Norton & Company, 2010)

Prose

Novels
Night Rider (1939). Novel
At Heaven's Gate (1943). Novel
All the King's Men (1946). Novel
Blackberry Winter: A Story Illustrated by Wightman Williams (1946)
World Enough and Time (1950). Novel
Band of Angels (1955). Novel
The Cave (1959). Novel
Wilderness: A Tale of the Civil War (1961). Novel
Flood: A Romance of Our Time (1964). Novel
Meet Me in the Green Glen (1971). Novel
A Place to Come to (1977). Novel
All the King's Men: Restored Edition (2002), edited by Noel Polk

Short story collections

The Circus in the Attic and Other Stories (1947)

Nonfiction
John Brown: The Making of a Martyr (1929)
An Approach to Literature (1938), with Cleanth Brooks and John Thibaut Purser
Understanding Poetry (1939), with Cleanth Brooks
Understanding Fiction (1943), with Cleanth Brooks
 Fundamentals of Good Writing: A Handbook of Modern Rhetoric (1950), with Cleanth
Brooks
Segregation: The Inner Conflict in the South (1956)
Selected Essays (1958)
The Legacy of the Civil War (1961)
Who Speaks for the Negro? (1965)
Homage to Theodor Dreiser (1971)
John Greenleaf Whittier's Poetry: An Appraisal and a Selection (1971)
American Literature: The Makers and the Making (1974), with Cleanth Brooks and R.W.B.
Lewis
Democracy and Poetry (1975)
Jefferson Davis Gets His Citizenship Back (1980)
New and Selected Essays (1989)

Plays
All the King's Men: A Play (1960)
All the King's Men: Three Stage Versions (2000), edited by James A. Grimshaw Jr. and
James A. Perkins

Children's books
Remember the Alamo! (1958). For children
The Gods of Mount Olympus (1959). For children
How Texas Won Her Freedom (1959). For children

References
1. Nelson, Randy F. The Almanac of American Letters. Los Altos, CA: William Kaufmann, Inc.,
1981: 27. ISBN 0-86576-008-X
2. Ehrlich, Eugene and Gorton Carruth. The Oxford Illustrated Literary Guide to the United
States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982: 291. ISBN 0-19-503186-5
3. Patrick County People, Free State of Patrick (http://www.freestateofpatrick.com/pcpeople.ht
m) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20110711040008/http://www.freestateofpatrick.co
m/pcpeople.htm) 2011-07-11 at the Wayback Machine
4. Wood, Edwin Thomas. "On Native Soil: A Visit with Robert Penn Warren," Mississippi
Quarterly 38 (Winter 1984)
5. Metress, Christopher. "Fighting battles one by one: Robert Penn Warren's Segregation" (htt
p://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3549/is_n1_v32/ai_n28666757/), The Southern Review,
Winter 1996.
6. "Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History" (https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/ark:/16417/xt7m901z
gp82).
7. "National Book Awards – 1958" (https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-
awards-1958). National Book Foundation. Retrieved March 2, 2012.
(With essay by Kiki Petrosino from the Awards 60-year anniversary blog, and other material
on Warren.)
 8. Jefferson Lectures (http://www.neh.gov/whoweare/jefflect.html) Archived (https://web.archiv
e.org/web/20111020121101/http://www.neh.gov///whoweare/jefflect.html) 2011-10-20 at the
Wayback Machine. National Endowment for the Humanities. Retrieved January 22, 2009.
Annual subsites with list of Prior Jefferson Lecturers (1972–1999).
9. "Democracy and Poetry: Robert Penn Warren" (http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isb
n=9780674196261) (publisher display). Harvard University Press. Retrieved September 7,
2013.
10. "Website of St. Louis Literary Award" (https://web.archive.org/web/20160823003924/http://w
ww.slu.edu/libraries/associates/award.html). Archived from the original (http://www.slu.edu/li
braries/associates/award.html) on 2016-08-23. Retrieved 2016-07-26.
11. Saint Louis University Library Associates. "Recipients of the St. Louis Literary Award" (http
s://web.archive.org/web/20160731082313/http://lib.slu.edu/about/associates/literary-award).
Archived from the original (http://lib.slu.edu/about/associates/literary-award) on July 31,
2016. Retrieved July 25, 2016.
12. Lifetime Honors – National Medal of Arts (https://www.nea.gov/honors/medals/medalists_ye
ar.html#87) Archived (https://web.archive.org/web/20110721054307/http://www.nea.gov/hon
ors/medals/medalists_year.html) 2011-07-21 at the Wayback Machine
13. "Robert Penn Warren" (https://www.amacad.org/person/robert-penn-warren). American
Academy of Arts & Sciences. Retrieved 2022-11-18.
14. "APS Member History" (https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Robert+Penn
+Warren&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=a
dvanced). search.amphilsoc.org. Retrieved 2022-11-18.
15. Jarman, Mark (1997). "A Story of Deep Delight: The Life of Robert Penn Warren" (https://ww
w.jstor.org/stable/3853181). The Hudson Review. 50 (3): 435–443. doi:10.2307/3853181 (htt
ps://doi.org/10.2307%2F3853181). JSTOR 3853181 (https://www.jstor.org/stable/3853181).
16. "Archived copy" (https://web.archive.org/web/20131019140957/http://www.crt.state.la.us/hp/
nationalregister/nhl/parish03/scans/03018001.pdf) (PDF). Archived from the original (http://w
ww.crt.state.la.us/hp/nationalregister/nhl/parish03/scans/03018001.pdf) (PDF) on 2013-10-
19. Retrieved 2013-10-18.
17. "Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities" (http://www.vanderbilt.edu/rpw_center/).
18. "The Penn Warren – History" (https://web.archive.org/web/20141018234218/http://thepennw
arren.com/history/). ThePennWarren.com. Archived from the original (http://thepennwarren.c
om/history/) on 18 October 2014. Retrieved 24 September 2014.

Further reading

The South Carolina Review, vol. 38, no. 2 (http://www.clemson.edu/cedp/press/scr/volumes/

scr_38-2.htm) (Spring 2006) features 6 articles related to Robert Penn Warren, all available
online (as of November 2014).
Winchell, Mark Royden (2007). Robert Penn Warren: Genius Loves Company (http://www.cl
emson.edu/cedp/press/pubs/winchell/index.html). Clemson, SC: Clemson University Digital
Press.
Encyclopedia of Kentucky. New York: Somerset Publishers. 1987. pp. 188–189. ISBN 0-
403-09981-1.
List of Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients – Literature

Bibliography

Millichap, Joseph R.. Robert Penn Warren after Audubon:The Work of Aging and the Quest
for Transcendence in His Later Poetry. Baton Rouge, LA. :Louisiana State University Press,
2009 ISBN 978-0-8071-3456-6
 Warren, Rosanna "Places – A Memoir of Robert Penn Warren" The Southern Review
Volume 41–2 Spring 2005

External links
Official website (http://www.robertpennwarren.com/)
The Robert Penn Warren Oral History Archive (https://www.nunncenter.net/robertpennwarre
n/) (digital exhibit, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries)
Robert Penn Warren bio at The Fellowship of Southern Writers (https://web.archive.org/web/
20070319233118/http://thefsw.org/page/members/charter-members/robert-penn-warren)
Robert Penn Warren page at poets.org (http://www.poets.org/poet.php/prmPID/17)
Robert Penn Warren page at KYLIT/Kentucky Literature (https://web.archive.org/web/20041
208124620/http://www.english.eku.edu/SERVICES/KYLIT/WARREN.HTM)
Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities (https://web.archive.org/web/201012240924
31/http://www.vanderbilt.edu/rpw_center/center.htm) at Vanderbilt University
Robert Penn Warren site run by tloufrey@charter.net (http://www.robertpennwarren.com)
The Robert Penn Warren Civil Rights Oral History Project (https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/ar
k:/16417/xt7m901zgp82), Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky
Libraries
The Robert Penn Warren Oral History Project (https://kentuckyoralhistory.org/ark:/16417/xt7
r222r7z2f), Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries
Eugene Walter and Ralph Ellison (Spring–Summer 1957). "Robert Penn Warren, The Art of
Fiction No. 18" (http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/4868/the-art-of-fiction-no-18-robert-
penn-warren). The Paris Review. Spring-Summer 1957 (16).
Timeline of Poets Laureate (https://www.loc.gov/poetry/laureate-1937-1960.html) at the
Library of Congress
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry
Guide to the Robert Penn Warren Photograph Collection (http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/f/findaid/find
aid-idx?c=kyead;cc=kyead;q1=robert%20penn%20warren;rgn=main;view=text;didno=kukav
81pa104) at the University of Kentucky.
Guide to the Robert Penn Warren papers, 1916–1967 (http://kdl.kyvl.org/cgi/f/findaid/findaid-
idx?c=kyead;cc=kyead;q1=robert%20penn%20warren;rgn=main;view=text;didno=kukm1m7
8m1) at the University of Kentucky.
Stuart Wright Collection: Robert Penn Warren Papers (#1169-014), East Carolina
Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina University (https://digital.lib.ecu.ed
u/special/ead/findingaids/1169-014)
Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University: Robert Penn
Warren collection, 1964–1989 (http://pid.emory.edu/ark:/25593/900sg)
Robert Penn Warren Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book
and Manuscript Library
National Portrait Gallery Collection of Robert Penn Warren (https://npg.si.edu/search/collecti
ons?edan_q=Robert%20Penn%20Warren)
Robert Penn Warren (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0913014/) at IMDb

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