All the King's Men
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All the King's Men is a novel by Robert Penn Warren, first published in 1946. The novel is loosely based on the biography of Louisiana governor Huey Long and derives its title from a line in the popular nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty. In 1947 Warren won the Pulitzer Prize for All the King's Men. Time magazine included the novel in its TIME 100 Best English-Language Novels from 1923 to 2005.[1] It was adapted for film in 1949 and 2006; the 1949 version won the Academy Award for Best Picture.
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[edit] Specifications
- Author = Robert Penn Warren
- Cover illustrator =
- Series =
- Genre = Political fiction
- Publisher = Harcourt, Brace & Company
- Country = United States
- Publication Date = 1946
- Nature of Rarity =
- Number in Existence =
- Estimated Value =
[edit] The Novel
All the King's Men portrays the dramatic political ascent and Louisiana State Governorship of Willie Stark (a.k.a. "the Boss"), a driven, cynical populist in the American South during the 1930s. The novel is narrated by Jack Burden, a political reporter who comes to work as Governor Stark's right-hand man. The trajectory of Stark's career is interwoven with Jack Burden's life story and philosophical reflections: "the story of Willie Stark and the story of Jack Burden are, in one sense, one story."[2]
The novel was an outgrowth of an earlier version of the story, a verse play entitled Proud Flesh.
The version edited by Noel Polk (ISBN 01-5100-610-5) uses the name "Willie Talos" for the Boss as originally written in Warren's manuscript, and is known as the "restored version" for using this name as well as printing several passages removed from the original edit.
[edit] Movie and opera versions
All the King's Men, a movie made based on Warren's novel, was released in 1949. The film won three Oscars that year: Best Picture, Best Actor (Broderick Crawford), and Best Supporting Actress (Mercedes McCambridge). The movie was also nominated for four more categories. In 2001 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant", and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. It is noted, however, for deviating significantly from the novel's storyline.
Another film version was produced in 2006. Writer/director Steven Zaillian has said it was his goal to more faithfully follow Warren's version of the story than the original film did.
American composer Carlisle Floyd adapted the novel as a full-length grand opera entitled Willie Stark, commissioned and premiered by the Houston Grand Opera in 1981.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ All the King's Men - ALL-TIME 100 Novels - TIME
- ^ Page 157, p. 236 in the Harcourt version.
[edit] External links
- Proceedings of a symposium on All the King's Men sponsored by the Maine Humanities Council in October 2007
- Photos of the first edition of All the King's Men
