Robert Penn
Warren
Robert Penn Warren, (b. April 24, 1905,
Guthrie, Ky., U.S.—d. Sept. 15, 1989,
Stratton, Vt.), American novelist, poet,
critic, and teacher, best-known for his
treatment of moral dilemmas in a South
beset by the erosion of its traditional,
rural values. He became the first poet
laureate of the United States in 1986.
In 1921 Warren entered Vanderbilt
University, Nashville, Tenn., where he
joined a group of poets who called
themselves the Fugitives. Warren was
among several of the Fugitives who
joined with other Southerners to publish
the anthology of essays I’ll Take My
Stand (1930), a plea for the agrarian
way of life in the South.
After graduation from Vanderbilt in
1925, he studied at the University of
California, Berkeley (M.A., 1927), and
at Yale. He then went to the University
of Oxford as a Rhodes scholar. From 1930
to 1950 he served on the faculty of
several colleges and
universities—including Vanderbilt and
the University of Minnesota. With
Cleanth Brooks and Charles W. Pipkin, he
founded and edited The Southern Review
(1935–42), possibly the most influential
American literary magazine of the time.
He taught at Yale University from 1951
to 1973. His Understanding Poetry (1938)
and Understanding Fiction (1943), both
written with Cleanth Brooks, were
enormously influential in spreading the
doctrines of the New Criticism.
Warren’s first novel, Night Rider
(1939), is based on the tobacco war
(1905–08) between the independent
growers in Kentucky and the large
tobacco companies. It anticipates much
of his later fiction in the way it
treats a historical event with tragic
irony, emphasizes violence, and portrays
individuals caught in moral quandaries.
His best-known novel, All the King’s Men
(1946), is based on the career of the
Louisiana demagogue Huey Long and tells
the story of an idealistic politician
whose lust for power corrupts him and
those around him. This novel won the
Pulitzer Prize in 1947 and, when made
into a film, won the Academy Award for
best motion picture of 1949. Warren’s
other novels include At Heaven’s Gate
(1943); World Enough and Time (1950),
which centres on a controversial murder
trial in Kentucky in the 19th century;
Band of Angels (1956); and The Cave
(1959). His long narrative poem, Brother
to Dragons (1953), dealing with the
brutal murder of a slave by two nephews
of Thomas Jefferson, is essentially a
versified novel, and his poetry
generally exhibits many of the concerns
of his fiction. His other volumes of
poetry include Promises: Poems,
1954–1956; You, Emperors, and Others
(1960); Audubon: A Vision (1969); Now
and Then; Poems 1976–1978; Rumor
Verified (1981); Chief Joseph (1983);
and New and Selected Poems, 1923–1985
(1985). The Circus in the Attic (1948),
which included “Blackberry Winter,”
considered by some critics to be one of
Warren’s supreme achievements, is a
volume of short stories, and Selected
Essays (1958) is a collection of some of
his critical writings.
Besides receiving the Pulitzer Prize for
fiction, Warren twice won the Pulitzer
Prize for poetry (1958, 1979) and, at
the time of his selection as poet
laureate in 1986, was the only person
ever to win the prize in both
categories. In his later years he tended
to concentrate on his poetry.
