Warren, Robert Penn, 1905-1989

Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989), first poet laureate of the United States, was a poet, writer of fiction, and co-author with Cleanth Brooks of influential textbooks on literature. He won Pulitzer Prizes for All the King's Men (1946) and for volumes of poetry, Promises (1958) and Now and Then (1979).

Robert Penn Warren served on the faculty of Louisiana State University, Dept. of English, from 1933-1942.

Robert Penn Warren, distinguished scholar and writer, was born in Guthrie, Kentucky, in 1905. He graduated summa cum laude from Vanderbilt University in 1925 with a degree in English. He continued his studies in English at the University of California, Berkeley, earning a M.A. in 1927. He also studied at Yale and at Oxford for two years as a Rhodes scholar. He earned the B. Litt. degree at Oxford in 1930. Besides teaching and lecturing, Warren achieved critical and popular acclaim as a poet, novelist, essayist, dramatist, literary critic, and editor. His better-known works include NIGHT RIDER, ALL THE KING'S MEN, and AUDUBON: A VISION. His novel WORLD ENOUGH AND TIME, was based on the Beauchamp-Sharp tragedy when former Kentucky attorney general, Solomon P. Sharp, was murdered by Jereboam Beauchamp in Frankfort, Nov. 7, 1825. Beauchamp had been infuriated by accusations during an 1824 election campaign that Sharp had seduced his wife and fathered her child in 1820. Robert Penn Warren died in 1989 and was buried at Stratton, Vermont.

American author and novelist.

Robert Penn Warren (1908-1989), poet and author.

Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989) was a poet, critic, novelist, and teacher. Warren taught at Vanderbilt University, Southwestern College, University of Minnesota, Yale University, and Louisiana State University. He co-founded and edited The Southern Review . Warren was appointed the nation's first Poet Laureate 26 February 1986. Three of Warren's works won the Pulitzer Prize: Promises: Poems, 1954-1956 ; Now and Then: Poems, 1976-1978 ; and his novel All the King's Men . Two of his novels, All the King's Men and Band of Angels, were made into film. Warren was also recipient of the Bolingen Prize, the National Medal for Literature, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Robert Warren Penn was born on April 24, 1905 in Guthrie, Kentucky. He earned his B.A. from Vanderbilt University in 1925, his M.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1927, and he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University earning his B.Litt in 1930. He was been a professor of English at five colleges and universities, including the University of Minnesota and Yale University. Robert Penn Warren was a writer, poet and teacher for over 40 years. He was the first "poet laureate" of the United States, has won the Pulitzer Prize three times, been awarded the National Book Award and the National Metal for Literature and has received over seventeen honorary degrees from colleges and universities across the United States. Biographical Source: Something About the Author, vol. 46, pp.208-218.

Robert Penn Warren is widely accounted the foremost American man of letters of the 20th century. Born in Kentucky, he intended to enter Annapolis, but an eye injury led him to Vanderbilt instead, where he developed a deep appreciation for literature under the mentorship of John Crowe Ransom. Warren wrote novels, poetry, criticism, drama, and nonfiction, enjoying popular success and critical accolades, culminating in winning the Pultizer Prize in both literature and poetry. His unparalleled versatility and success make him one of the premier figures in 20th century literature.

Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989), poet and novelist, born in Guthrie, Kentucky.

Author.

Author, poet.

Robert Penn Warren was born in Guthrie, Ky. in 1905. He was educated in public schools, graduated from Vanderbilt University and was a Rhodes Scholar. He has been a professor of English and playwriting at several American universities. A writer of novels, plays and poetry, Warren has received numerous awards, including Pulitzer prizes for both fiction and poetry. He is considered one of this nation's leading literary figures and was named Poet Laureate of the United States in 1986.

Robert Penn Warren (Apr. 24, 1905- Sept. 15, 1989) was born and grew up in Guthrie, Kentucky. He graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1925. While at Vanderbilt he was associated with the Fugitive poets and later contributed to I'll take my stand, the manifesto of the Southern Agrarians. He studied also at the University of California and Yale. In 1928 he entered New College, Oxford, as a Rhodes Scholar; he took a B.Litt. degree from there in 1930. He taught at Vanderbilt, Southwestern at Memphis, Louisiana State University, the University of Minnesota, and Yale. In 1952 he married his second wife, the novelist Eleanor Clark. They had two children, Rosanna Phelps Warren (born July 1953) and Gabriel Penn Warren (July 1955), and lived in Fairfield, Connecticut, and Stratton, Vermont. Robert Penn Warren was a poet, novelist, essayist and critic of the first rank. He won Pulitzer Prizes for his novel All the king's men (1946) and for two books of his poetry, Promises : poems 1954-1956 (1958) and Now and then (1979). On Feb. 26, 1986, he was named the first official Poet Laureate of the United States. His papers are in the Beinecke Library at Yale University.

William Meredith (Jan. 9, 1919-May 30, 2007) was born in New York City and was an American poet. He graduated from Princeton University in 1940 and taught at Princeton, the University of Hawaii, and Connecticut College. He won a Pulitzer Prize in 1988 for Partial accounts : new and selected poems, and a National Book Award in 1997 for Effort at speech.

Eleanor Clark (1913-1996) was a novelist and writer. She won a National Book Award in 1964 for The oysters of Locmariaquer, a depiction of a fishing community in Brittany.

Rosanna Phelps Warren, born in 1953, is the daughter of Robert Penn Warren and Eleanor Clark. She graduated from Yale University in 1976 and received a master's degree in writing from Johns Hopkins University in 1980. She has won many awards for her poetry. She is a professor of comparative literature at Boston University.

Robert Warren Penn was born on April 24, 1905 in Guthrie, Kentucky. He earned his B.A. from Vanderbilt University in 1925, his M.A. from the University of California, Berkeley in 1927, and he was a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford University earning his B.Litt in 1930. He was been a professor of English at five colleges and universities, including the University of Minnesota and Yale University.

Robert Penn Warren was a writer, poet and teacher for over 40 years. He was the first "poet laureate" of the United States, has won the Pulitzer Prize three times, been awarded the National Book Award and the National Metal for Literature and has received over seventeen honorary degrees from colleges and universities across the United States.

Biographical Source: Something About the Author, vol. 46, pp.208-218.

Robert Penn Warren, the only American writer to win the Pulitzer Prize for both fiction and poetry, was born in Guthrie, Kentucky on April 24, 1905, the second child of Robert F. and Anna Penn Warren. Educated in the school systems of Guthrie and Clarksville, Tennessee, Warren at sixteen attended Vanderbilt University. At Vanderbilt Warren came under the influence of John Crowe Ransom and a talented group of faculty and undergraduate writers that included Allen Tate, Donald Davidson, Merrill Moore, and others. With these Warren contributed his early poetry to The Fugitive, the Nashville literary journal which became a noteworthy mouthpiece between 1922 and 1925 for new expressions in American poetry. After graduating summa cum laude from Vanderbilt in 1925, Warren completed an M.A. at the University of California at Berkeley in 1927, undertook further graduate studies at Yale, and in 1929 was selected for a Rhodes Scholarship at Oxford, completing his B. Litt. degree in 1930. That same year he married Emma Brescia, whom he had met in California. The previous year, Warren had published his first book, a biography of the noted abolitionist John Brown.

After teaching literature for one year at Southwestern College (Memphis) and three years at Vanderbilt, Warren was appointed to the English faculty at Louisiana State University in 1934. There he joined with Cleanth Brooks and Charles Pipkin in founding and editing the Southern Review, one of the major academic literary magazines of the 1930s. During his tenure at Louisiana State, Warren completed his first book of poetry, Thirty-six Poems (1936), and his first novel Night Rider (1939). In 1936 he began his collaboration with Cleanth Brooks in producing the first of several influential literary textbooks, An Approach to Literature, followed by Understanding Poetry (1938) and Understanding Fiction (1943).

In 1942 Warren joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota, where he remained until 1950, when he went to Yale. In 1944-1945 he took a leave of absence to become a Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress. His third novel, All the King's Men (1946), won him his first Pulitzer Prize; he received subsequent Pulitzer Prizes for two volumes of poetry, Promises (1958) and Now and Then (1979). In 1952 Warren married Eleanor Clark and moved to Fairfield, Connecticut, his home until his death. They had two children.

In 1960 Warren was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and in 1986 he became the first Poet Laueate of the United States. His many other honors include two Guggenheim Fellowships, the National Book Award, the Bollingen Prize for Poetry, the Copernicus Award from the Academy of American Poets, the MacArthur Foundation prize, and numerous honorary degrees and certificates.

Robert Penn Warren died on September 14, 1989 at eighty-four.