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Dictionary of Literary Biography • Volume Three Hundred Twenty

Robert Penn Warren: A Documentary Volume Contents

Plan of the Series xxiii Introduction xxv Acknowledgments xxviii Permissions xxx

Works by 3 Chronology 8 Launching a Career: 1905-1933 20 Beginnings 20 Facsimile: Pages from the Warren family Bible An Old-Time Childhood—from Warren's poem "Old-Time Childhood in Kentucky" The Author and the Ballplayer-from Will Fridy, "The Author and the Ballplayer: An Imprint of Memory in the Writings of Robert Penn Warren" Early Reading-from Ralph Ellison and Eugene Walter, "The Art of Fiction XVIII: Robert Penn Warren"

Clarksville High School. '. -. J , 30 Facsimile: Warren's essay on his first day at Clarksville High School Facsimile: First page of "Munk" in The Purple and Gold, February 1921 Facsimile: "Senior Creed" in The Purple and Gold, April 1921 Writing for The Purple and Gold—from Tom Wibking, "Star's Work Seasoned by Country Living" Becoming a Fugitive 38 "Incidental and Essential": Warren's Vanderbilt Experience-from "Robert Penn Warren: A Reminiscence" A First Published Poem-"Prophecy," The Mess Kit (Foodfor Thought) and Warren letter - to Donald M. Kington, 6 March 1975 The Importance of The Fugitive—horn Louise Cowan, The Fugitive Group: A Literary History Brooks and Warren at Vanderbilt-from Cleanth Brooks, "Brooks on Warren" A Fugitive Anthology-Warren letter to Donald Davidson, 19 September 1926 Katherine Anne Porter Remembers Warren—from Joan Givner, Katherine Ann Porter: A Life A Literary Bird Nest—from Brooks, "A Summing Up" The Fugitives as a Group-from Ellison and Walter, "The Art of Fiction XVIII: Robert Penn Warren" Facsimile: Page from a draft of John Brown A Glimpse into the Warren Family 52 Letters from Home: Filial Guilt in Robert Penn Warren-from an essay by William Bedford Clark

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Warren and Brooks at Oxford-from Brooks, "Brooks on Warren" Facsimile: Warren postcard to his mother, April 1929 A First Book -. 60 Martyr and Fanatic: Review of John Brown-from Allan Nevins, The New Republic, 19 March 1930 "A Vivid Story": Review of John Brown-from L. A. Harper, University of California Chronicle, July 1930 The "Higher-Law Man" and the Civic Order—from Hugh Ruppersburg, Robert Penn Warren and the American Imagination Stumbling into "Prime Leaf'-from Ellison and Walter, "The Art of Fiction XVIII: Robert Penn Warren" Warren's "Briar Patch" 64 A Hamstrung View ofJustice—fro m James E. Ruoff, "Robert Penn Warren's Pursuit ofJustice : From Briar Patch to Cosmos" What Might Be Done: The Argument for the Negro in "The Briar Patch"-from John L. Stewart, The Burden of Time: The Fugitives and Agrarians A Pastoral Rebuke—from Louis D. Rubin, The Wary Fugitives: Four Poets and the South A Return to Nashville 68 Happy Years—from "Robert Penn Warren: A Reminiscence" Facsimile: Page from a draft for "The Apple Tree"

Poet, Teacher, Novelist: 1934-1950 73 "A Marvelous Arrangement"-Warren letter to Katherine Anne Porter, 22 December 1934 Baton Rouge in the 1930s—Charles East, "Memories of Baton Rouge" The Old War Skule 75 The Origin of --from essay by Cleanth Brooks and Warren Writing, Editing, Teaching—Warren letter to Donald Davidson, 28 February 1935 LSU in the 1930s: Remembering the Boys Next Door-from Robert B. Heilman, "Baton Rouge and LSU Forty Years After" The Swimming Man—Peter Davison, "Questions of Swimming, 1935" Warren and Brooks at LSU—from Brooks, "Brooks on Warren" Working on The Southern Review-from Brooks, "Brooks on Warren" and from Warren remarks in The Southern Review, Original Series, 1935-1942 Reviews of Thirty-Six Poems 85 "The Uncertain Violence of Transition"-from John Holmes, "Five American Poets," Virginia Quarterly Review, April 1936 Problems of Knowledge—from Morton Dauwen Zabel, , April 1936 Understanding Literature 87 Confronting a "Practical Problem"—from Brooks, "Forty Years of ''" Warren as a Teacher in the 1930s-from Norton R. Girault, "Recollections of Robert Penn Warren as Teacher in the 1930's"

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Schoolroom Anthology: Review of Understanding Poetry—Eda Lou Walton, New York Herald Tribune Books, 28 August 1938 Practical Criticism and Understanding Poetry--from Monroe K. Spears, "The Critics Who Made Us" The Value of Understanding Poetry--from John M. Bradbury, The Fugitives: A Critical Account 91 Tragic Liberal: Review of Might Rider—Christopher Isherwood, New Republic, 31 May 1939 Disclaimer—from Night Rider History and Night Rider-irom Ralph Ellison and Eugene Walter, "The Art of Fiction XVIII: Robert Penn Warren" "Vivid, Sensuous Writing": Review of Night Rider-irom Philip Rahv, "A Variety of Fiction," Partisan Review, Spring 1939 A Story Within a Story—from Warren letter to Allen Tate, January 1939 "A Notable Achievement": Review of Night Rider-from Herbert J. Muller, "Violence upon the Roads," Kenyon Review, Summer 1939 "The Power to Evoke": Review of Night Rider-Anthony West, "New Novels," New Statesman and Nation, 20 January 1940 Munn's Search for Self-knowledge in Night Rider-from Alvan S. Ryan, "Robert Penn Warren's Night Rider: The Nihilism of the Isolated Temperament" The Father-Son Motif in Night Rider-from Randolph Paul Runyon, "Father, Son, and Taciturn Text" ProudFlesh 98 Idealism and Rage in Proud Flesh—essay by John Burt Facsimile: Page from Warren's first draft at Proud Flesh Facsimile: Francis Fergusson letter to Warren, 9 May 1941 Facsimile: First page for the typescript of ProudFlesh Facsimile: Joseph Warren Beach letter to Warren, 5 February 1942 A Time of Transition 109

"Notable Virtues": Review of Eleven Poems on the Same Theme-John Frederick Nims, "Two Intellectual Poets," Poetry, December 1942 Facsimile: First page of Beach's critique of Eleven Poems on the Same Theme Christmas in Minnesota-from Warren letter to John Palmer, 24 December 1942, and Warren letter to Frank Owsley, 25 December 1942 AtHeaven's Gate 113 Mighty like Despair: Review of At Heaven's Gate, Commonweal, 6 August 1943 Passionate Southern Eloquence: Review of At Heaven's Gate—Caroline Gordon, New York Herald Tribune Weekly Book Review, 22 August 1943 The Shadow of Fact and Fiction—from Ellison and Walter, "The Art of Fiction XVI11: Robert Penn Warren" Facsimile: First page of a typescript draft of At Heaven's Gate Facsimile: Page from typescript draft of At Heaven's Gate Luke Lea's Empire: Review of At Heaven's Gate—Malcolm Cowley, The New Republic, 23 August 1943 Writing by Feeling-"An Interview with Flannery O'Connor and Robert Penn Warren"

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History and Idea in At Heaven's Gate-irom Allen Shepherd, "The Poles of Fiction: Warren's 'At Heaven's Gate'" Selected Poems, 1923-1943 .'. 119 The Inklings of "Original Sin": Review of Selected Poems, 1923-1943—, Saturday Review of Literature, 20 May 1944 Shorthand for Poetry Reviewers—from Leonard Casper, Robert Penn Warren: The Dark and Bloody Ground The Significance of "The Ballad of Billie Potts"-from William Bedford Clark, "A Meditation on Folk-History: The Dramatic Structure of Robert Penn Warren's The Ballad of Billie Potts " Facsimile: Warren letter to Lawrence Thompson, 21 September 1959 "A Poem of Pure Imagination: An Experiment in Reading" 123 Towards Objective Criticism: Review of Warren's Essay on The Rime of the Ancient Mariner—Kenneth Burke, Poetry: A Magazine of Verse, April 1947 "The Bird-Church Business"-from Brooks letter to Warren, 5June 1945, and Warren letter to Brooks, 8 June 1945 Facsimile: Frederick A. Pottle letter to Warren, 19 June 1945 On Writing Criticism and the New Criticism—Ellison and Walter, "The Art of Fiction XVIII: Robert Penn Warren" All the King's Men 128 Introduction to All the King's Men—Warren, Modern Library edition Facsimile: Page from an-early draft of the ending of All the King's Men The First Chapter of All the King's Men--from "An Interview with Flannery O'Connor and Robert Penn Warren" Facsimile: First page of the discarded opening chapter Creatingjack Burden—from "An Interview with Flannery O'Connor and Robert Penn Warren" In the Time of All the King's Men—essay by Warren "The Hardest Kind of Audience"-from Brooks letter to Warren, 13 July 1946 Facsimile: William Faulkner letter to Lambert Davis, 25 July 1946 Misreading as Huey Long—from Casper, Robert Penn Warren: The Dark and Bloody Ground "The Problem of Presenting Anne Stanton"—from Warren letter to Donald Davidson, 9 October 1946 "The Dialectical Struggle of Good and Evil": Review of All the King's Men-Diana Trilling, "Fiction in Review," Nation, 24 August 1946 A Teachable Novel—from Earl Wilcox, "Right On! All the King's Men in the Classroom" On the Nature of Things: Review of All the King's Men-George Mayberry, New Republic, 2 September 1946 "High Craftsmanship": Review of All the King's Men-trom Granville Hicks, "Some American Novelists," American Mercury, October 1946 One of Three Novels—from Fergusson, "Three Novels" . Blackberry Winter and The Circus in the Attic 150

"Blackberry Winter": A Recollection—Warren, in Understanding Fiction DLB 320 Contents

Facsimile: Page from a draft of Blackberry Winter The Stranger as Mentor in "Blackberry Winter"-fromJames H.Justus, "Warren as Mentor: Pure and Impure Wisdom" Fiedler on Warren's Long Stories-from Leslie A. Fiedler, "The Fate of the Novel," Kenyan Review, Summer 1948 Warren on Teaching 155 Hicks letter to Warren, 9 February 1947 Warren letter to Hicks, 18 February 1947 The Movie of All the King's Men 158 Publicity Notes for All the King's Men World Enough and Time 162 Through the Iron Gates: Review of World Enough and Time—Carlos Baker, Virginia Quarterly Review, Autumn 1950 Facsimile: First page from an early draft of World Enough and Time Erskine as Editor-from Warren letter to Brooks, 12 September 1949 Warren's World Enough and Time: "Et in Arcadia Ego"—from essay by Richard G. Law Facsimile: Page from the setting copy for World Enough and Time Facsimile: Page from Warren's notes for an unproduced television drama, "Don't Bury Me at All"

The Yale Years: 1951-1973 170 Facsimile: First page of Warren's lecture "William Faulkner and His South," 13 March 1951 Conrad and Divorce—Warren letter to Albert Erskine, 27 May 1951 A New Life i 172 Shared Lives—from Victoria Thorpe Miller, "Shared Lives and Separate Studies: The Literary Marriage of and Robert Penn Warren" Writing at 2495 Redding Road Eleanor Clark's Books Warren's "Exile" at Yale-from C. Vann Woodward, "Exile at Yale" Writings in the 1950s 179 Robert Penn Warren's Savage Poem: Review of Brother to Dragons—Babette Deutsch, New York Herald Tribune Book Review, 23 August 1953 Facsimile: Page from Warren's notes for Brother to Dragons Finding the Form of Brother to Dragons-from "An Interview with Flannery O'Connor and Robert Penn Warren" Facsimile: Page from a late draft of Warren's introductory note for Brother to Dragons Death of a Father—from Portrait of a Father Facsimile: Page from a draft of Band of Angels Souls Lost in a Blind Lobby: Review of Band of Angels--Carlos Baker, Saturday Review, 20 August 1955 Warren's Confessional Novels—from Neil Nakadate, "Robert Penn Warren and the Confessional Novel"

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Turmoil in the South: Review of Segregation-Mark Ethridge Jr., Saturday Review, 1 September 1956 Working Without Teaching-from Warren letter to Erskine, 5 August 1956, and Warren letter to Lon Cheney, 22 January 1957 The Stiff Smile of Mr. Warren: Review of Promises—James Wright, Kenyon Review, Autumn 1958 Facsimile: A handwritten copy of "The Necessity for Belief" The Seriousness of Robert Penn Warren: Review of Selected Essays—Alfred Kazin, Partisan Review, Spring 1959 Criticism as Self-Definition—from Monroe Spears, "The Critics Who Made Us" A Tale of Men Trapped in Their Own Darkness: Review of The Caw-Sam Hynes, Commonweal, 4 September 1959 On Trying to Be a Writer—from "An Interview with Flannery O'Connor and Robert Penn Warren" Working in the Theater 202 Working with Robert Penn Warren—essay by Aaron Frankel Facsimile: Title page and a revised page from the working script for Willie Stark: His Rise and Fall No Literature in Heaven—from "An Interview with Flannery O'Connor and Robert Penn Warren" Warren's Civil War 213 Warren's Fascination with the Civil War—from R. W. B. Lewis, "Afterword," Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren: A Literary Correspondence Warren's Southerner-Northener Dialectic—from Lewis, "Robert Penn Warren: Geography as Fate" Facsimile: First page of Warren's summary of Wilderness Wilderness as an Historical Myth—from L. Hugh Moore Jr., Robert Penn Warren and History "How a Jellyfish Eats an Oyster"-from Warren letter to Cheney, 19 May 1961 An Altered Stand: Review of The Legacy of the Civil War—Richard M. Weaver, National Review, 17 June 1961 Last Years at Yale 220 The Beginnings of Flood—from Richard B. Sale, "An Interview in New Haven wim Robert Penn Warren" An Exchange of Letters on Flood-letters to the editor, Lewis and Frederick C. Crews, The New York Times Book Review, 31 May 1964 Facsimile: First page from the setting copy for Flood Warren's "Calculated Risk": Review of Flood-John Lewis Longleyjr., "When All Is Said and Done: Warren's Flood," Southern Review, Autumn 1965 Warren at the 1965 Soudiern Literary Festival: A Personal Recollection—essay by Robert W. Hamblin Facsimile: Warren letter to Malcolm X, 27 May 1964 Warren's Challenge to Race Dogma: Review of Who Speaks for the Negro?-C. Vann Woodward, New Republic, 22 May 1965 Who Speaks for the Negro? and the New Journalism—James A. Perkins, "Robert Penn Warren and James Farmer: Notes on the Creation of New Journalism" Art and Breast Size—from Warren letter to Arthur Mizener, 8 November 1966 i Facsimile: The first leaf from the manuscript for an unpublished novel titled "So Clear" How a Poet Works—interview article by William Kennedy, The National Observer, 6 February 1967

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Robert Penn Warren's Vision: Reviews of Incarnations: Poems, 1966-1968 and Audubon: A Vision—Stanley Plumly, Southern Review, Autumn 1970 Travel in Service to Work—passage from an essay by Gabriel Warren On Audubon: A Vision--from Calvin Bedient, In the Heart's Last Kingdom: Robert Penn Warren's Major Poetry Acute, Critical Eye Trained on "Wild Man" of American Letters: Review of Homage to Theodore Dreiser--William Parrill, Nashville Tennessean, 5 September 1971 The Enormous Spider Web of Warren's World: Review of Meet Me in the Green Glen—John W. Aldridge, Saturday Review, 9 October 1971 Facsimile: Page from a draft for Homage to Theodore Dreiser Facsimile:Warren letter to Donald E. Stanford and Lewis P. Simpson, 27 September 1971 Facsimile: Page from a draft for Warren's introduction to William Faulkner's Light in August Self-Discovery in American Literature: The Makers and the Making—from R. W. B. Lewis, "Afterword," Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren: A Literary Correspondence

Last Walk of Season: 1974-1989 259 Facsimile: Page of a draft of Warren's tribute to John Crowe Ransom Tribute to John Crowe Ransom—Warren, 'John Crowe Ransom (1988-1974)," Southern Review, Spring 1975 America and Poetry 262 A Defense of Poetry for Our Time—from Monroe K. Spears, "The Critics Who Made Us" State of the Nation: Review of Democracy and Poetry--Henry Nash Smith, TLS: The Times Literary Supplement, 20 February 1976 "A Nothing Which Is Everything"-"Interview with Eleanor Clark and Robert Penn Warren," Fall 1978 "There Is Real Danger Of Dictatorial Power"-interview in U.S. News & World Report, 7 July 1975 The American Attitude Toward the Past-from Warren, "The Use of the Past," 1977 On Warren's "Use of the Past"—from William Bedford Clark, The American Vision of Robert Penn Warren In Love with America-from "A Conversation with Robert Penn Warren," Bill Mayers' Journal, 4 April 1976 A Last Novel 269 Robert Penn Warren's Latest Celebration of the Years: Review of A Place to Come 7o-Seymour Epstein, Chicago Tribune, 6 March 1977 Facsimile: Pages from drafts for Warren's speech introducing Katherine Anne Porter, 18 October 1976 The Germ of A Place to Come To—from Carll Tucker, "Creators on Creating: Robert Penn Warren" Facsimile: Page from Albert Erskine's critique of A Place to Come To A Technician's Romance: Review of A Place to Come To—, Saturday Review, 19 March 1977 Grand Intentions-from Julian Symons, "In the Southern Style," TLS: The Times Literary Supplement, 29 April 1977 Facsimile: First page of the setting copy for A Place to Come To

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From Percy Munn to Jed Tewksbury-from Randy Hendricks, Lonelier than God: Robert Penn Warren and the Southern Exile A Movie and an —from Warren letter to Donald Stanford, 26 November 1977 Late Poetry 278 Rare Prosperities: Review of Selected Poems, 1923-1975-J. D. McClatchy, Poetry, December 1977 "Zestful but Minor"-from Symons, "In the Southern Style," TLS: The Times Literary Supplement, 29 April 1977 Harold Bloom on "Evening Hawk"—from Bloom, Robert Penn Warren Intimations of Immortality: Review of Now and Then-Paul Piazza, The Chronicle Review, 30 October 1978 The Grandeur of Certain Utterances: Review of Now and Then-Peter Stitt, Georgia Review, Spring 1979 Warren on Porter-from Monroe K. Spears, "The Critics Who Made Us" Facsimile: Page from a draft of Brother to Dragons (A New Version) William Meredith letter to Warren, 2 July 1979 Comparing the Versions of Brother to Dragons-Lewis P. Simpson, "The Concept of the Historical Self in Brother to Dragons" Facsimile: Draft of "Grackles, Goodbye" Robert Penn Warren's Courage: Review of Being Here—James Dickey, Saturday Review, August 1980 Robert Penn Warren aet. 75—Malcolm Cowley, Georgia Review, Spring 1981 Celebrating Warren's 75th Birthday—from Joseph Blotner, Robert Penn Warren: A Biography Continuity and Change: Review of Rumor Verified—Irvin Ehrenpreis, Atlantic Monthly, December 1981 The Vatic Mantle: Review of Now and Then, Being Here, and Rumor Verified— Jay Parini, 715: The Times Literary Supplement, 29 January 1982 A One-Shot Kill: Waiting for Chief Joseph-irom Carll Tucker, "Creators on Creating: Robert Penn Warren" Facsimile: Warren letter to Albert Erskine, 1 February 1982, and a page from the "Fourth Version" of Chief Joseph of the Net Perce Warren's Meditation on Time—from Dickey, "Warren's Poetry: A Reading and Commentary" A Kind of Unconscious Autobiography: Review of New and Selected Poems, 1923-1985—Sister Bernetta Quinn, Southern Review, April 1985 Revising a Man into a Hero: Warren's Chief Jos eph-from Jonathan S. Cullick, Making History Facsimile: Drafts of "Old-Time Childhood in Kentucky" Where Poems Come From-from Alvin P. Sanoff, '"Pretty, Hell! Poetry Is Life'" Family and Community Poems-from Floyd C. Watkins, Then & Now: The Personal Past in the Poetry of Robert Penn Warren Facsimile: Warren letter to Cleanth Brooks, 16 September 1983 Facsimile: Warren letter to Brooks, 7 August 1985 , Last Years 324 All the Nation's Poet-Time, 10 March 1986

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Facsimile: Page from Brooks and Warren's draft of an article on the founding of The Southern Review Remembering Warren at the University of Minnesota—James Shannon, "Overdue Tribute to a Teacher Who Made a Lifelong Difference," Minneapolis Star and Tribune, 7 September 1986 Reading and Teaching Poetry-from Sanoff, '"Pretty, Hell! Poetry Is Life'" A Note of Thanks-Samuel Hynes letter to Warren, 25 March 1988 Facsimile: Page from a draft of Portrait of a Father Legacy 335 Elizabeth Kastor, "Robert Penn Warren: A Voyage to the Heart," Washington Post, 16 September 1989 Inviting the Future—from Lucy Ferriss, Sleeping with the Boss: Female Subjectivity and Narrative Pattern in Robert Penn Warren Deep in the Blackness of Woods: A Farewell to Robert Penn Warren—essay by Peter Davison Robert Penn Warren and the Southern Review-essay by Donald E. Stanford Truthful Knowledge-Cleanth Brooks, "A Tribute to Robert Penn Warren" Robert Penn Warren and the South—essay by Lewis P. Simpson On the Death and Life of Robert Penn Warren-essay by James Olney Places: A Memoir—essay by

For Further Reading 355 Cumulative Index - 363

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