Editing Robert Penn Warren (section)

==Early years==
Warren was born in [[Guthrie, Kentucky]], very near the [[Tennessee]]-[[Kentucky]] border, to Robert Warren and Anna Penn.<ref>Ehrlich, Eugene and Gorton Carruth. ''The Oxford Illustrated Literary Guide to the United States''. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982: 291. {{ISBN|0-19-503186-5}}</ref> Warren's mother's family had roots in Virginia, having given their name to the community of Penn's Store in [[Patrick County, Virginia]], and she was a descendant of Revolutionary War soldier Colonel [[Abram Penn]].<ref>[http://www.freestateofpatrick.com/pcpeople.htm Patrick County People, Free State of Patrick] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110711040008/http://www.freestateofpatrick.com/pcpeople.htm |date=2011-07-11 }}</ref>

After he had graduated from a private high school at age 15, his mother enrolled him in [[Clarksville High School (Tennessee)|Clarksville High School]] in [[Clarksville, Tennessee]] for a year because she thought he was too young to go to college. In 1921 his left eye was removed after an accident, which canceled his appointment to the [[U.S. Naval Academy]]. That summer, he published in "The Messkit" his first poem "Prophecy." In the fall of 1921, at age 16, he entered [[Vanderbilt University]] in Nashville, Tennessee, graduating in the summer of 1925 ''[[summa cum laude]]'', [[Phi Beta Kappa]], and Founder's Medalist. That fall, he entered the [[University of California, Berkeley]], as a graduate student and teaching assistant, and upon receiving his M.A. in 1927, entered [[Yale University]] on a fellowship. In October 1928 he entered [[New College, Oxford]], in England as a [[Rhodes Scholarship|Rhodes Scholar]] and received his B.Litt. in the spring of 1930. He also received a [[Guggenheim Fellowship]] to study in Italy during the rule of [[Benito Mussolini]]. That same year he began his teaching career at Southwestern College (now [[Rhodes College]]) in [[Memphis, Tennessee]].