# 3904 - 2005 37c Literary Arts: Robert Penn Warren
37¢ Robert Penn Warren
Literary Arts Series
City: Guthrie, KY
Printing Method: Photogravure
Color: Multicolored
Robert Penn Warren
The grandson of Confederate Civil War veterans, Warren grew up listening to their tales about the war, providing him with a rich history that would later influence his writing. When he was 15, Warren prepared to go to the US Naval Academy, but his brother accidentally hit him in the eye with a stone, leaving him nearly blind in that eye. In later years, Warren said he was ashamed that he couldn’t serve in the military because of his injury, but it led him down the path to becoming an accomplished author.
Warren went on to attend Vanderbilt University where he studied engineering. While there, he joined a group of poets known as the Fugitives, and published his first works in their magazine, The Fugitive. By the time Warren graduated in 1925, he decided to be a writer.
In 1939, Warren and one of his colleagues at Louisiana State published Understanding Poetry, a textbook that outlined many of the new ideas of the day, improving literary studies. While at Louisiana State, Warren also helped found the Southern Review, which became one of the leading literary magazines in the country.
Warren’s works explore the interaction of past and present, the search for individual identity, and the nature of evil. His book All the King’s Men follows the rise and fall of a ruthless Southern politician. It is the most widely read of all his works and won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Click here to read some of Warren’s poetry.
37¢ Robert Penn Warren
Literary Arts Series
City: Guthrie, KY
Printing Method: Photogravure
Color: Multicolored
Robert Penn Warren
The grandson of Confederate Civil War veterans, Warren grew up listening to their tales about the war, providing him with a rich history that would later influence his writing. When he was 15, Warren prepared to go to the US Naval Academy, but his brother accidentally hit him in the eye with a stone, leaving him nearly blind in that eye. In later years, Warren said he was ashamed that he couldn’t serve in the military because of his injury, but it led him down the path to becoming an accomplished author.
Warren went on to attend Vanderbilt University where he studied engineering. While there, he joined a group of poets known as the Fugitives, and published his first works in their magazine, The Fugitive. By the time Warren graduated in 1925, he decided to be a writer.
In 1939, Warren and one of his colleagues at Louisiana State published Understanding Poetry, a textbook that outlined many of the new ideas of the day, improving literary studies. While at Louisiana State, Warren also helped found the Southern Review, which became one of the leading literary magazines in the country.
Warren’s works explore the interaction of past and present, the search for individual identity, and the nature of evil. His book All the King’s Men follows the rise and fall of a ruthless Southern politician. It is the most widely read of all his works and won the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
Click here to read some of Warren’s poetry.