Poke, stab, jab, Ouch! haven't you ever heard that the penn is mightier than the sword? What? What's that you say? That's pen with one "n", as in enough already?!

The great poet and novelist Robert Penn Warren was born in Guthrie, Kentucky in Todd County in 1905. He attended Guthrie public schools and went on to graduate summa cum laude from Vanderbilt University. Warren earned his Master's Degree at the University of California at Berkeley, and studied at the universities of Yale and Oxford for two years as a Rhodes Scholar.

In 1934,Warren began teaching at Louisiana State University. From there he moved north. He taught at the University of Minnesota from 1942 until 1951 and then retired from his teaching career at Yale in 1973.

When Warren was not teaching he was writing. His notable works include: Night Rider (1939), All the King's Men (1946) and Audubon: A Vision (1969). Honored with many prestigious awards, he was our nation's first Poet Laureate and he won the Pulitzer Prize three (that's 3, count 'em) times. The only person to win the Pulitzer for both fiction and poetry.

In 1987, Western Kentucky University established a Center for Warren Studies and in 1989 the town of Guthrie restored his birthplace. Warren died in 1989, and was buried in Stratton, Vermont.

 Source:

Kleber, John E. The Kentucky Encyclopedia, Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky1992.