Best Selling Books by Robert Penn Warren

A narrative poem based upon the heroic life of the great chief of the Nez Perce Indians, is told partly in the first person by Joseph, partly in the voice of the poet.

Originally published in 1963, this powerful novel spools a rewarding, dramatic storyline while it probes the deeper philosophical search for self-definition in modern life and the symbolic demise of the agrarian South from technological progress. Flood begins with the arrival of two men in a small Tennessee town -- Brad Tolliver, long-absent native son and successful screenwriter, and Yasha Jones, famous director and stranger to the region. Their purpose is to create a great film about the town, which will soon vanish when the massive dam being built downriver is completed. The town''s inhabitants come vividly to life as past and present forces prepare them for a climactic new beginning to their world.

In the last decade of his life, Robert Penn Warren remained a vibrant force in American literature, producing new works of poetry and nonfiction while also dealing courageously with the gradual decline of his health and the diminishment of his poetic powers. Toward Sunset, at a Great Height, 1980--1989, the sixth and final volume of the author''s selected letters, provides crucial documentation of this period, containing Warren''s correspondence with friends, family, fellow writers, editors, critics, and the scholars studying his works. Warren published several volumes of poetry, including Being Here (1980), Rumor Verified (1981), and Chief Joseph of the Nez Perce (1983), and returned to nonfiction prose with Jefferson Davis Gets His Citizenship Back (1980) and the memoir Portrait of a Father (1988). His letters reveal that he tried to begin writing a novel but was unable to make substantial progress on it, and that from 1985 on he became increasingly dissatisfied with his new poems. Until his death at age eighty-four, however, Warren maintained an active correspondence filled with news about his writings and travels, accounts of the lives of his wife and children, and a stoic attitude about his own physical decline as well as a solicitousness regarding the health of others, such as his brother, Thomas, and sister, Mary. He communicated with rising young scholars and encouraged younger poets he admired. Toward Sunset, at a Great Height offers rich insights into the closing chapter of Robert Penn Warren''s professional and personal life, making it an essential resource for understanding the full scope of the author''s contribution to American letters.

In his sixth novel, The Cave (1959), Robert Penn Warren tells the story of a young man trapped in a cave in fictional Johntown, Tennessee. His predicament becomes the center of national attention as television cameras, promoters, and newscasters converge on the small town to exploit the rescue attempts and the thousands of spectators gathered at the mouth of the cave.

John Greenleaf Whittier''s Poetry was first published in 1971. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. In this volume Robert Warren Penn, the noted critic, poet, and novelist, provides a major new appraisal of the once enormously popular New England port, John Greenleaf Whittier, along with his selection of 36 of Whittier''s poems. Through Warren''s perceptive and illuminating discussion, the significance of Whittier as a writer for our time becomes clear. In his introduction Warren shows that Whittier''s deep commitment to his fellowman, especially his devotion to the cause of abolition, profoundly influenced his writing. In his estimate of Whittier''s place in literature, Warren invokes the questions What does the past mean to an American? and in this context he compares Whittier with Cooper, Hawthorne, Melville, and Faulkner. He finds that Whittier''s "star belongs in their constellation. If it is less commanding than any of theirs it yet shines with a clear and authentic light."

A selection of poems from the last six decades including fifty recent poems not previously published.

A collection of short stories and literary criticism.

A collection of Penn Warren''s best short fiction: two novelettes and twelve stories that skillfully handle a variety of themes and styles."Worth reading for their craftsmanship and variety" (Charles Poore, New York Times).

In his latest gathering of poems, Warren continues to work variations on his favorite subjects examining time, the elements, the gifts of nature, the blessed accident of fate and what they all mean to a man of advancing years and few illusions. Throughout, a "nameless apprehension" underlies the speaker''s reflections on "the mystery of time and happiness and death."

Bonded Leather binding