U.S. Poet Laureate, 1986-1987
U.S. Consultant in Poetry, 1944-1945
Robert Penn Warren, U.S. Poet Laureate, 1986-1987; U.S. Consultant in Poetry, 1944-1945. Photo courtesy of Department of Library Special Collections, Western Kentucky University.
Warren (1905-1989) was born in Kentucky and educated at Vanderbilt University and the University of California, Berkeley. Though perhaps best known for his 1946 novel All the King’s Men, he was the author of over a dozen books of poetry in addition to his prose work. He is the only writer to have won Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction (in 1947) and poetry (in 1958 and 1979). Warren’s other honors include a Rhodes Scholarship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, a MacArthur Fellowship, and the National Medal of Arts. He taught at Southwestern College (now Rhodes College) in Memphis and co-authored several literature textbooks.
Audio Recordings with Robert Penn Warren
- Robert Penn Warren reading his poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, October 6, 1986