Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 – September 15, 1989) was an American poet,
novelist, and literary 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
The Pulitzer Prize for Fiction is one of the seven American Pulitzer Prizes that are annually awarded for Letters, Drama, and Music. It recognizes distinguished fiction by an American author, preferably dealing with American life, published during ...
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.
Early years
Warren was born in
Guthrie, Kentucky, very near the
Tennessee-
Kentucky border, to Robert Warren and Anna Penn. Warren's mother's family had roots in Virginia, having given their name to the community of Penn's Store in
Patrick County, Virginia
Patrick County is a county located on the central southern border of the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 17,608. Its county seat is Stuart. It is located within both the rolling hills and valleys of the ...
, and she was a descendant of Revolutionary War soldier Colonel
Abram Penn
Abram Penn, also known as "Abraham Penn" (December 27, 1743 in Caroline County, Virginia – 1801 in Patrick County, Virginia) was a noted landowner and Revolutionary War officer from Virginia.
Family life
He married Ruth Stovall (1743- 1800?), ...
.
Robert Penn Warren graduated from
Clarksville High School in
Clarksville, Tennessee;
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...
(
summa cum laude,
Phi Beta Kappa) in 1925; and the
University of California, Berkeley (M.A.) in 1926. Warren pursued further graduate study at
Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...
from 1927 to 1928 and obtained his
B.Litt. Bachelor of Letters (BLitt or LittB; Latin ' or ') is a second undergraduate university degree in which students specialize in an area of study relevant to their own personal, professional, or academic development. This area of study may have been t ...
as a
Rhodes Scholar from
New College, Oxford, in England in 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
John Crowe Ransom (April 30, 1888 – July 3, 1974) was an American educator, scholar, literary critic, poet, essayist and editor. He is considered to be a founder of the New Criticism school of literary criticism. As a faculty member at Kenyon ...
,
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. 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''. He subsequently adopted a high profile as a supporter of
racial integration. In 1965, he published ''
Who Speaks for the Negro?
''Who Speaks for the Negro?'' is a 1965 book of interviews by Robert Penn Warren conducted with Civil Rights Movement activists. The book was reissued by Yale University Press in 2014. The Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities at Vanderb ...
'', 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 The Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, also known as The Nunn Center, the University of Kentucky, is one of the premier oral history centers in the world, known for a comprehensive oral history archival collection, ongoing interviewing projects, ...
at the University of Kentucky.
Warren's best-known work is ''
All the King's Men'', a novel that won the
Pulitzer Prize in 1947. Main character
Willie Stark
''Willie Stark'' is an opera in three acts and nine scenes by Carlisle Floyd to his own libretto, after the 1946 novel ''All the King's Men'' by Robert Penn Warren, which in turn was inspired by the life of the Louisiana governor Huey Long. The o ...
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
William Broderick Crawford (December 9, 1911 – April 26, 1986) was an American stage, film, radio, and television actor, often cast in tough-guy roles and best known for his Oscar- and Golden Globe-winning portrayal of Willie Stark in ''All th ...
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
''Willie Stark'' is an opera in three acts and nine scenes by Carlisle Floyd to his own libretto, after the 1946 novel ''All the King's Men'' by Robert Penn Warren, which in turn was inspired by the life of the Louisiana governor Huey Long. The o ...
'' 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
The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress—commonly referred to as the United States Poet Laureate—serves as the official poet of the United States. During their term, the poet laureate seeks to raise the national cons ...
, 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.
["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.)
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'').
[Jefferson Lectures](_blank)
. National Endowment for the Humanities. Retrieved January 22, 2009. Annual subsites with list of Prior Jefferson Lecturers (1972–1999). In 1977, Warren was awarded the
St. Louis Literary Award The St. Louis Literary Award has been presented yearly since 1967 to a distinguished figure in literature. It is sponsored by the Saint Louis University Library Associates.
Winners
Past Recipients of the Award:
*2023 Neil Gaiman
*2022 Arundhat ...
from the
Saint Louis University Library Associates. In 1980, Warren was presented with the
Presidential Medal of Freedom by President
Jimmy Carter
James Earl Carter Jr. (born October 1, 1924) is an American politician who served as the 39th president of the United States from 1977 to 1981. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he previously served as th ...
. 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. Warren was an elected member of the
American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the
American Philosophical Society.
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. His second marriage was in 1952 to
Eleanor Clark
Eleanor Clark (1913 – 1996) was an American writer and "master stylist," best known for her non-fiction accounts.
Background
Eleanor Clark was born on July 6, 1913, in Los Angeles, California, but grew up in Roxbury, Connecticut. She ...
, 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. He lived the latter part of his life in
Fairfield, Connecticut, and
Stratton, Vermont
Stratton is a town in Windham County, Vermont, United States. The population was 440 at the 2020 census.
Geography
According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of 46.9 square miles (121.5 km2), of which 46 ...
, 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
Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...
houses the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities, which is sponsored by the College of Arts and Science. 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.
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
References
;Further reading
''The South Carolina Review'', vol. 38, no. 2(Spring 2006) features 6 articles related to Robert Penn Warren, all available online (as of November 2014).
*
*
*
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
*Warren, Rosanna "Places - A Memoir of Robert Penn Warren" ''The Southern Review'' Volume 41-2 Spring 2005
External links
Official websiteThe Robert Penn Warren Oral History Archive(digital exhibit, Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries)
Robert Penn Warren bio at The Fellowship of Southern WritersRobert Penn Warren page at poets.orgRobert Penn Warren page at KYLIT/Kentucky Literatureat
Vanderbilt University
Vanderbilt University (informally Vandy or VU) is a private research university in Nashville, Tennessee. Founded in 1873, it was named in honor of shipping and rail magnate Cornelius Vanderbilt, who provided the school its initial $1-million ...
Robert Penn Warren site run by [email protected]The Robert Penn Warren Civil Rights Oral History Project Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries
The Robert Penn Warren Oral History Project Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, University of Kentucky Libraries
*
at the
Library of Congress
*
''Pulitzer Prize for Poetry''Guide to the Robert Penn Warren Photograph Collectionat the University of Kentucky.
Guide to the Robert Penn Warren papers, 1916-1967at the University of Kentucky.
Stuart Wright Collection: Robert Penn Warren Papers (#1169-014), East Carolina Manuscript Collection, J. Y. Joyner Library, East Carolina UniversityStuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University: Robert Penn Warren collection, 1964-1989*
Robert Penn Warren Papers. Yale Collection of American Literature, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library
National Portrait Gallery Collection of Robert Penn Warren
{{DEFAULTSORT:Warren, Robert Penn
1905 births
1989 deaths
20th-century American novelists
American literary critics
American male novelists
20th-century American poets
American Poets Laureate
American Rhodes Scholars
Deaths from bone cancer
Formalist poets
Louisiana State University faculty
MacArthur Fellows
National Book Award winners
New Criticism
People from Guthrie, Kentucky
Pulitzer Prize for Poetry winners
Pulitzer Prize for the Novel winners
United States National Medal of Arts recipients
University of California, Berkeley alumni
University of Iowa faculty
Vanderbilt University alumni
Novelists from Kentucky
Novelists from Louisiana
Writers from Fairfield, Connecticut
Yale University faculty
Bollingen Prize recipients
Deaths from cancer in Vermont
Burials in Vermont
American male poets
Writers of American Southern literature
Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients
20th-century American male writers
Novelists from Connecticut
Novelists from Iowa
American male non-fiction writers
Robert Meltzer Award winners
Southern Agrarians
Members of the American Philosophical Society