Selected Letters of Robert Penn Warren

by Warren, Robert Penn; Clark, William Bedford

• ISBN13: 9780807125366
• ISBN10: 0807125369
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-04-01
• Publisher: Louisiana State Univ Pr

Summary

In America's twentieth century, there is no man of letters more versatile, distinguished, and influential than the poet, novelist, editor, critic, social commentator, and teacher Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989). The most intimate of Warren's "letters, " his personal correspondence, now join his published canon under William Bedford Clark's expert supervision. Volume 1, The Apprentice Years, forms a kind of epistolary coming-of-age novel, taking Warren from the awkwardness of emerging genius during his Fugitive student years at Vanderbilt to the brink of producing great work in a newly appointed post at Louisiana State University.

Warren's letters, all but one previously unpublished, fascinate in their revelations, such as the author's surprisingly tangled relationship with his parents, his delicate health, and the gossip about major literary figures, including Allen Tate, John Crowe Ransom, Donald Davidson, and Laura Riding. But beyond rich biographical detail, they offer a veritable self-portrait of the fledgling artist: "When a person writes a letter it is n

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xv
Note on Editorial Procedures and List of Abbreviations	xxi
Introduction	1	(5)
Selected Letters of Robert Penn Warren, 1935-1942	6	(397)
Selected Bibliography	403	(4)
Index	407