ROBERT PENN WARREN

Robert Penn Warren was born in Gutherie, Kentucky in

1905. After graduating from high school, he moved to

Nashville, Tennessee to attend Vanderbilt University.

Warren began his study working toward a major in Chemistry.

Soon, the English Professors and Poets, Donald Davidson and

John Crowe Ransom won him over into the analysis of

Literature and Poetry.

Robert's maternal grandfather, Gabriel Thomas Penn, was

his essential origin of information and also, his idol. The

old man was a Civil War Veteran who had fought with General

Forester. He resided on an old, rundown tobacco farm

encircled by his books, largely a selection of military

history. To his grandson he was the "living symbol of the

wild action and romance of the past." Grandfather Penn was

very important to Warren's success as well as the rural

setting the farm provided. His grandfather devoted much

more time to the boy than did his own father. Warren says

his grandfather could "quote poetry by the yard." THis

explains why Warren has been so engrossed in the Civil War

and why he judged it to be the "Greatest American Epic."

Robert Penn Warren is one of the most academic and

learned of our American Writers, in history, literature,

poetry, and even short stories that pertain to American and

particularly Southern History. He perceives better than

most, how America has changed and just what these changes

have cost. "Life in the South is the topic of practically

all of the fiction and frequently the poetry he has written.

Robert is a chief figure in the Southern Literary

Renaissance." Since both of his grandpa's had been

Confederate Soldiers in the Civil War, he had listened to

various stories about the numerous conflicts with the Union

Army. Warren manifest a unique talent of "spontaneous

storytelling." Several of his stories do pertain to his own

past, but they also propse the feeling of a moment and a

locality very acquainted to many of his faithful readers.