All the King's Men - 2nd Edition by Robert Penn Warren & Noel Polk (Paperback)

About the Book

As relevant today as it was 50 years ago, "All the King's Men" is a classic novel about American politics. Set in the 1930s, this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel traces the rise and fall of demagogue Willie Stark, a fictional character based on the real-life Huey Long of Louisiana.

Book Synopsis

WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE

The fully restored original text of the classic, ever-relevant story of a backcountry lawyer whose idealism is overcome by his lust for power in a story of moral complexity--American literature's definitive political novel.

All the King's Men traces the rise and fall of demagogue Willie Stark, a fictional Southern politician who resembles the real-life Huey Long of Louisiana. Stark begins his career as an idealistic man of the people, but he soon becomes corrupted by success and the lust for power, a gripping tale of political corruption.

Now Warren's masterpiece has been fully restored and reintroduced by literary scholar Noel Polk, textual editor of the works of William Faulkner. Polk presents the novel as it was originally written, revealing even greater energy, excitement, and complexity.

From the Back Cover

Set in the '30s, this Pulitzer Prize-winning novel traces the rise and fall of demagogue Willie Stark, a fictional character who resembles the real-life Huey "Kingfish" Long of Louisiana. Stark begins his political career as an idealistic man of the people but soon becomes corrupted by success and caught between dreams of service and an insatiable lust for power. The model for 1996's best-selling novel, Primary Colors, and as relevant today as it was fifty years ago, All the King's Men is one of the classics of American literature.

Review Quotes

PRAISE FOR ALL THE KING'S MEN

"Over the course of more than two centuries of vivid political history, there is perhaps only one full-blooded American novel of politics that plunges deep into the hearts of its characters and therefore into the hearts of its readers, thus rising to the top ranks of American fiction. That is Robert Penn Warren's lush All the King's Men."

- L O S A N G E L E S T I M E S B O O K R E V I E W

"It's a measure of the enduring worth of All the King's Men that Willie Stark has entered our collective literary consciousness, in the company of Captain Ahab, Huck Finn, Jay Gatsby, Holden Caulfield, Rabbit Angstrom, and very few others."

- J O Y C E C A R O L O A T E S, T H E N E W Y O R K R E V I E W O F B O O K S