All the King's Men

All the King’s Men by Robert Penn Warren is a fictional political novel originally published in 1946 by Harcourt Brace & Company. Robert Penn Warren was an acclaimed novelist and poet from the American South. Along with fellow Southerners Cleanth Brooks and John Crowe Ransom, he was a leading proponent of the literary critical approach known as New Criticism. His best-known novel, All the King’s Men follows the political rise and fall of Governor Willie Stark, based on the real-life figure of Louisiana Governor and US Senator Huey Long. The novel explores the corrupting nature of power and the use of public perception to consolidate power. Willie Stark, like Huey Long, uses questionable political practices to gain momentum and influence over his opponents and consolidate power in his state. Robert Penn Warren is the only person to win the Pulitzer Prize for both poetry and fiction, having first won the award for All the King’s Men in 1947 and later for books of poetry in both 1958 and 1979. The novel enjoys popularity to this day and was adapted for the screen in 1949 and 2006, with the latter adaptation starring Sean Penn.