1905- Penn is born in Guthrie, Todd County, Kentucky
1921- Goes to Vanderbilt University and becomes the youngest member of the Southern poets association known as the Fugitives which included John Crowe Ransom and Allen Tate.
1922- Publishes poems in The Fugitive newsletter set up by the organization. It printed until 1925.
1925-27- Teaches at the University of California and earns his masters degree.
1928-1930- Studies at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and returns to the United States in 1930.
1930- Marries Emma Brescia.
1934- Begins his teaching career at Louisana State University.
1938- Writes Understanding Poetry with Cleanth Brooks, which is said to revolutionize college text books during its era.
1942- Accepts a teaching job at the University of Minnesota and remains their until 1951.
1951- Divorces Emma Brescia, begins teaching at Yale and marries Eleanor Clark.
1954-56- Writes Promises: Poems which wins the Sidney Hillman Award, the Edna St. Vincent Millay Memorial Award, the National Book Award, and the Pulitzer Prize.
1972- Becomes the Chancellor for the American Academy of Poets.
1976-78- Writes Now and Then: Poems, 1976-78.
1979- Wins his third Pulitzer Prize for Now and Then: Poems, 1976-78.
1985- Appointed the first U.S. Poet Laureate.
1988- Retires from his position as the Chancellor for the Academy of American Poets.
1989- Death on September 15, 1989.
All the Kings Men Won Several Film and Literary Awards Including The Pulitzer Prize and Best Film as did many of his works. In fact, in his lifetime, Warren Won Three Pulitzers…
LifetimeWorks
Poetry
XXXVI Poems (1935) .
Eleven Poems on the Same Theme (1942).
Brother to Dragons (1953) .
Promises: Poems, 1954-1956 (1957). (Pulitzer)
You, Emperors and Others: Poems 1957-1960 (1960).
Selected Poems: New and Old, 1923-1966 (1966) .
Incarnations (1968) .
Audubon: A Vision (1969).
Now and Then, Poems 1976-1977 (1978).*(Pulitzer)
Being Here: Poetry 1977-1980 (1980) .
New and Selected Poems 1923-1985 (1985).
The Collected Poems of Robert Penn Warren (1998) Ed. John Burt.
Prose
John Brown: The Making of a Martyr (1929) .
I'll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition (1930) With
others.
Understanding Poetry (1938) With C. Brooks.
Understanding Fiction (1943)
Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner (1946)
Modern Rhetoric (1949)
Fundamentals of Good Writing (1950)
Segregation: The Inner Conflict in the South (1956)
Selected Essays (1958)
Who Speaks for the Negro? (1965)
Homage to Theodore Dreiser (1971)
Letters
Night Rider (1938)
At Heaven's Gate (1943)
All the King's Men (1946)***
Blackberry Winter (1946)
The Circus in the Attic, and Other Stories (1948)
World Enough and Time (1950)
Band of Angels (1955)
The Cave (1959)
Wilderness (1960)
Flood (1964)
Meet Me in the Green Glen (1971)
A Place to Come To (1977)
*Indicates Won a Literary Award
**Indicates Winning a Film Award
***Indicates Winning Both Film and Literary Awards
For More Information Try These Great Robert Penn Warren Sites:
Robert Warren Penn: The Academy of American Poets:
http://www.poets.org/poets/poets.cfm?prmID=17&CFID=1577437&CFTOKEN=526121
Modern American Poetry: Robert Warren Penn:
http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/warren/warren.htm
KYLIT-A Site Devoted To Kentucky Writers:
http://www.english.eku.edu/SERVICES/KYLIT/WARREN.HTM
The Mighty Penn:
http://www.kytales.com/penn/penn.htm
Robert Warren Penn:
http://www.robertpennwarren.com/circle%20history.htm
The Southerner:
(Robert Warren Penn Writing Contest and Rules!)
http://www.southerner.net/warrenprize.html
Site Bibliography
American National Biography. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. Copyright 1999 by the American Council of Learned Societies.
Bedient, Calvin. In The Heart's Last Kingdom: Robert Penn Warren's Major Poetry. Chapter 2, "His Mature Manner."
Encyclopedia. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1992. 932.
Justus, James. The Achievement of Robert Penn Warren. Section 1, "Warren the Poet."
Miller, Mary Ellen. "Warren, Robert Penn." in Kleber, John, ed. The Kentucky
Strandberg, Victor. The Poetic Vision of Robert Penn Warren. "Introduction:
The Critical Reckoning."