Robert Penn Warren

In many ways, Robert Penn Warren was a model of the writer as social animal. As a precocious sixteen-year-old sophomore, he began attending meetings of Nashville's Fugitive group. Decades before creative writing workshops had become a fixture on university campuses, these gifted amateurs would meet on alternate Saturday nights to exchange drafts of poems they were writing. The critical attention no doubt improved their verse, while the shared sense of community solidified their commitment to the literary life. Even a selective account [such as this] of Warren's most important literary associations during such a long and active life could fill a good size book.