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Joseph Blotner Archives || RPW Links on the Net || Robert Penn Warren Photos || Center for Robert Penn Warren Studies
Biography
Robert
Penn Warren died on September 15, 1989. For more information read:
Collection
In addition to publications the library also holds approximately 300 photographs, a few manuscript items such as correspondence with publishers, several programs and other paper ephemera. Artifacts include Warren's desk, office furnishings, and memorabilia. Among the honorary gifts he received are the laurel wreath for the Poet Laureateship, ribbons, plaques, and medals. Available in the Robert Penn Warren Library is a checklist of publications in the collection. Joseph Blotner Archives
Also included are drafts and proofs of Robert Penn Warren: A Biography and correspondence and financial records related to its publication. The collection contains some sound recordings, including Warren reading poetry and some of Blotner's interviews with Warren associates. An
inventory of the collection
is available. Links on the Net
|
Robert
Penn Warren, distinguished scholar-writer, was born in
Guthrie, Kentucky, on April 24, 1905. He attended public
schools in Guthrie and Clarksville, Tennessee; graduated
summa cum laude from Vanderbilt University (1925); and
received an M.A. in English from the University of California,
Berkeley (1927). He studied at Yale and enjoyed two years
at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, subsequently earning the
B.Litt. Degree at Oxford in 1930. While a student, Warren
formed lasting friendships with other writers, participated
in literary discussion groups and in the founding of a
journal called The Fugitive, and became a member
of the Agrarians, a social-political group that included
John Crowe Ransom, Donald Davidson and Allen Tate.
From
1930 Warren held a succession of academic positions, at
schools such as Southwestern College, Vanderbilt, and
the University of Minnesota. While at Louisiana State
University he co-founded (with Cleanth Brooks and Charles
W. Pipkin) a critical quarterly The Southern Review
in 1935. At Yale Warren held professorships in playwriting
(1951-1956) and in English (1961-1973).
Warren
achieved fame as a poet, novelist, essayist, critic and
editor. His many awards included three Pulitzer Prizes:
All the King's Men (Fiction, 1947), Promises
(Poetry, 1958), and Now and Then (Poetry, 1979).
In 1986 Robert Penn Warren was named as the first U. S.
Poet Laureate, an honor confirming his stature as an outstanding
poet. He received numerous other awards, honorary degrees
and commendations, including the Presidential Medal of
Freedom, America's highest civilian award.
Warren
and his wife, author Eleanor Clark, lived in Fairfield,
Connecticut. Daughter Rosanna followed in her parents'
footsteps as a scholar and writer. Son Gabriel is a sculptor.
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