Robert Penn Warren:: A Biography

In chronicling the life (1904-1989) of a one-time literary lion whose works often failed to match his celebrity, Blotner has taken on a subject less accomplished and yet more challenging than the Southern titan at the center of his admired Faulkner. An anachronism while still active, Warren never equaled the great novel of Deep South politics he published at 42, All the King's Men. While groping for decades to outdo it, he established stronger credentials as poet and critic. Although he lived most of his adult life above the Mason-Dixon line, he drew his imaginative energy largely from his Kentucky and Tennessee roots, alleging that the North was ""really just a big hotel to me... The South will always be my home."" Balancing objectivity with sensitivity, Blotner takes on his subject's disastrous first marriage; his alcoholic and much-married ""Fugitive Group"" literary circle; his peripatetic academic climbing; and his overriding concern with income despite considerable royalties and monetary prizes. Dollars often dictated Warren's professional decisions, drawing him back again and again to the classroom and lecture circuit, although he complained that teaching chewed up his energy. Going well beyond Warren's writings in his documentation, Blotner has produced a biography likely to stand up for a long time, yet unlikely to resuscitate the reputation Warren once possessed as a jewel of the American literary establishment. Photos not seen by PW. (Feb.)