Warren, Robert Penn, 1905-89, American novelist, poet, and critic, b. Guthrie, Ky., grad. Vanderbilt Univ. 1925; M.A., Univ. of California 1927; B.Litt., Oxford 1930. At Vanderbilt he became associated with John Crowe Ransom and the group of Southern agrarian poets who made the Fugitive (1922-25) an important literary magazine. He was managing editor with Cleanth Brooks of the Southern Review. Warren first gained recognition as a poet. His early verse was much influenced by the metaphysical poets, but his later poetry is simpler and more regional. Among his volumes of poetry are Thirty-six Poems (1935); Brother to Dragons (1953; Pulitzer), a long, dramatic poem; Promises (1957; Pulitzer), Selected Poems: New and Old (1966), Incarnations (1968), Audubon: A Vision (1969), Or Else (1974), and New and Selected Poems 1923-1985 (1985). Warren's most famous novel is All the King's Men (1946; Pulitzer), which concerns the rise to power of a political demagogue resembling Huey Long. Among his other novels are World Enough and Time (1950), The Cave (1959), Wilderness (1961), Flood (1964), Meet Me in the Green Glen (1971), and A Place to Come To (1977). His other works include a collection of short stories, The Circus in the Attic (1948), and Selected Essays (1958). In 1986 he became the first poet laureate of the United States.

(born April 24, 1905, Guthrie, Ky., U.S.—died Sept. 15, 1989, Stratton, Vt.) U.S. novelist, poet, and critic. Warren attended Vanderbilt University, where he joined the Fugitives, a group of poets who advocated the agrarian way of life in the South. Later he taught at several colleges and universities and helped found and edit The Southern Review (1935–42), possibly the most influential American literary magazine of the time. His writings often treat moral dilemmas in a South beset by the erosion of its traditional rural values. His best-known novel is All the King's Men (1946, Pulitzer Prize; film, 1949). The short-story volume The Circus in the Attic (1948) contains the notable “Blackberry Winter.” He won Pulitzer prizes for poetry in 1958 and 1979 and became the first U.S. poet laureate in 1986.

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The Warren-Brooks Award for literary criticism was established to honor the innovative, critical interpretation of literature offered by Robert Penn Warren and Cleanth Brooks to celebrate the continuation of such achievement. It is awarded for outstanding literary criticism originally published in English in the United States of America and is given in those years when a book, or other worthy publication, appears that exemplifies the Warren-Brooks effort in spirit, scope, and integrity.

The award is given annually by the advisory group of the Center for Robert Penn Warren Studies at Western Kentucky University for outstanding literary criticism originally published in English in the United States.

Past Recipients

• 1995: Simpson, Lewis P., The Fable of the Southern Writer, LSU Press, 1995
• 1996: Winchell, Mark Royden, Cleanth Brooks and the Rise of Modern Criticism, University of Virginia Press, 1996
• 1997: Hollander, John, The Work of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 1997
• 1998: Donoghue, Denis, The Practice of Reading, Yale University Press, 1998
• 1999: Schuchard, Ron, Eliot's Dark Angel, Oxford University Press, 1999
• 2000: Kermode, Sir Frank, Shakespeare's Language, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2000
• 2001: Murphy, Paul V., The Rebuke of History North Carolina Press, 2001
• 2002: Burt, Stephen, Randall Jarrell and His Age Columbia University Press, November 2002
• 2003: Buell, Lawrence, Emerson, The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2003
• 2004: (shared) James H. Justus, Fetching the Old Southwest, University of Missouri Press; Marjorie Perloff, Differentials, University of Alabama Press
• 2005: Constance W. Hassett, “Christina Rossetti: The Patience of Style,” University of Virginia Press, 2005
• 2006: Rosen, David, Power, Plain English, and the Rise of Modern Poetry,Yale University Press, 2006
• 2007: Rosen, David, Power, Plain English, and the Rise of Modern Poetry, Yale University Press, 2006

Notes

External links

• Web page description of the award