Jefferson Davis Gets His Citizenship Back [Hardcover]

Robert Penn Warren (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 31, 1980

" In 1979 Robert Penn Warren returned to his native Todd Country, Kentucky, to attend ceremonies in honor of another native son, Jefferson Davis, president of the Confederacy, whose United States citizenship had just been restored, ninety years after his death, by a special act of Congress. From that nostalgic journey grew this reflective essay on the tragic career of Jefferson Davis -- ""not a modern man in any sense of the word but a conservative called to manage what was, in one sense, a revolution."" Jefferson Davis Gets His Citizenship Back is also a meditation by one of our most respected men of letters on the ironies of American history and the paradoxes of the modern South. Robert Penn Warren (1905-1989), born in Guthrie, Kentucky, was one of America's most revered writers, producing fiction, poetry, history, and criticism, much of it focusing on the moral dilemmas of the South. He served as America's first poet laureate. He received the Pulitzer Prize three times, for his novel All the King's Men and for his books of poetry Promises and Now and Then. He is also the author of Portrait of a Father.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A sturdy, fascinating little book.... Contributes to a vivid portrait of Davis's tragic career." -- Los Angeles Times

"You won't find anywhere a finer blend of history, biography and memoir." -- Wall Street Journal

Product Details

• Hardcover: 120 pages
• Publisher: University Press of Kentucky Press; 1st edition (December 31, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813114454
• ISBN-13: 978-0813114453
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,130,175 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Easy Read, March 8, 2001

By 

David Graham (Shell, Ecuador) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Jefferson Davis Gets His Citizenship Back (Hardcover)

Best known as the author of All the King's Men, Robert Penn Warren wrote this short (114 pages) book after Confederate President Jefferson Davis had his U.S. citizenship restored in 1979 during the Carter Administration, some nine decades after Davis's death. When this took place, Warren returned home to Todd County, Kentucky for a ceremony honoring Davis's posthumous reinstatement. As it turns out, Jefferson Davis, like Warren, was also a native of Todd County, and this book is Warren's memoir, a reflection on the ironic, sometimes sad life of the only president the Confederacy ever had. This rumination was so engaging I couldn't put it down. I read it in one sitting, captivated by the quality of story-telling and the poignant southern nostalgia it evoked.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good outline of the life of a great and troubled man, June 27, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Jefferson Davis Gets His Citizenship Back (Hardcover)

This is a concise - 114 pages - but no less impressive and comprehensive look at Davis's life than some of the longer biographies out there. Warren, like Allen Tate before him, sees Davis as a great man but deeply flawed. He could quite possibly have won the War Between the States had he not been so rigidly dedicated to the principle of state's rights. He was too much the gentleman to do what was necessary. Lincoln, on the other hand, was a pragmatist, and had no qualms about suspending the constitution to achieve his means; he thought he was saving the Constitution by defying it!

A sad tale of greatness thwarted by principle. Warren composed this essay in honor of his fellow Kentuckian, whose U.S. citizenship had been restored that year - 1979 - by an act of Congress. Warren writes with verve, wit, humor, and insight.