Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989)

A selective list of online literary criticism on the American poet and novelist Robert Penn Warren, favoring signed articles by recognized scholars, articles published in reviewed sources, and web sites that adhere to the Modern Language Association Guidelines for Web Pages

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introduction

"Robert Penn Warren." Includes a biography and excerpts of influential critical commentary on some of Warren's best known poems: "Heart of Autumn," "Evening Hawk," and "Bearded Oaks." Modern American Poetry. Eds. Edward Brunner and Cary Nelson.

"Robert Penn Warren." A very short biography of Robert Penn Warren. Also "A Brief Guide to the Fugitives" (Warren, Tate, Ransom). From the Academy of American Poets.

"Life Studies." A succinct summary of modern American poetry discusses Warren's importance. Academy of American Poets.

Brinkmeyer, Robert H., ed. "Robert Penn Warren." Strategies for teaching Warren's poetry. From educational publisher Heath Anthology.

Donohue, Cecelia. "Robert Penn Warren." 21 March 2002. Literary Encyclopedia. Eds. Robert Clark, Emory Elliott, Janet Todd. An introduction to Robert Penn Warren, from a database that provides signed literary criticism by experts in their field, and is available to individuals for a reasonably-priced subscription. On All the King's Men (1946) [subscription service].

Interview with Robert Penn Warren, by Eugene Walter Paris Review 16 (Spring-Summer 1957).

literary criticism

Albin, C.D. "'Figured in Kinship': Rock, hawk, and dream in Warren's 'Kentucky Mountain Farm' and Brother to Dragons." Style Summer 2002.

Beck, Charlotte. "Robert Penn Warren and the poetics of purity." Says Beck, "Robert Penn Warren's attacks on the notion of pure poetry began in his earliest critical writings but came into focus during the 1940s." Style Summer 2002.

Berger, Aimee. "The aesthetics of absence and the scopophilic text: Robert Penn Warren's Meet Me in the Green Glen." Style Summer 2002.

Blotner, Joseph. A review of Robert Penn Warren: A Biography, Insight on the News, 4/28/97 by Rex Roberts. Another review, National Review, 4/21/97 by Jeffrey Hart, who writes, "The appearance now of solid biographies of Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks testifies to the continuing importance of both."

Burris, Sidney. "Mega-processors, advanced peripherals, and Robert Penn Warren's Audubon." Studies in the Literary Imagination Spring 2002.

Burt, John. "Warren reflects on the discontinuities of his poetic career." Style Summer 2002.

Clark, William Bedford, and Robert Drake. "Cleanth Brooks and the Rise of Modern Criticism." Mississippi Quarterly Winter 1996.

Ealy, Steven D. "Corruption and innocence in Robert Penn Warren's fiction." Modern Age Spring 2005.

Ferriss, Lucy. "Introduction: the aesthetics of Robert Penn Warren." Style Summer 2002.

McCarron, Bill. "Warren's recondite vocabulary." Notes McCarron, "Robert Penn Warren has a propensity for including highly unusual words in his poetry." Style Summer 2002.

Mitchell, Mark T. "Theological reflections on Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men." Modern Age Fall 2006.

Myers, D.G. "Robert Penn Warren and the History of Criticism." Midwest Quarterly 34 (Summer 1993).

Prestridge, Sam. "Walking so his feet don't touch the ground: Robert Penn Warren, the regional motive, and 'Kentucky Mountain Farm.'" Style Summer 2002.

Rio, David. "Two worlds, one story: The American south and southern Europe in Robert Penn Warren's fiction." Studies in the Literary Imagination Spring 2002.

Runyon, Randolph Paul. "Warren's poetics of sequence: the case of 'Island of Summer.'" On the sequence of fifteen poems that forms the first part of Warren's Incarnations: Poems 1966-1968. Style Summer 2002.

Szczesiul, Anthony. "The conservative aesthetic of Warren's early poetry." Style Summer 2002.

Van Dyke, John C. "'A critical sense worthy of respect': John Marston and the early poetics of Robert Penn Warren" [and Elizabethan playwright John Marston]. Style Summer 2002.

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