The Circus in the Attic and Other Stories is the only volume of short fiction by poet and novelist Robert Penn Warren. The collection, comprising two novellas and twelve short stories, was first published in 1947 by Harcourt Brace & Company.Millichap, 1992 p. 136: Selected Bibliography

Warren produced a relatively small body of short fiction compared to his poetry, novels and nonfiction work. The Circus in the Attic and Other Stories represents almost half of his entire oeuvre in the short story genre.Millichap, 1992 p. 5: Warren's "production the [short story] genre is limited by comparison to the other genre in his canon, and he clearly stopped writing short fiction as such relatively early in his career." And: p. 103: Introduction to Part 3, The Critics.

The collection includes perhaps Warren's most outstanding work of short fiction, "Blackberry Winter" (1946), both in its critical acclaim and the author's own assessment.Millichap, 1992 p. 25: "...certainly his most successful story both in Warren's own view and by general critical agreement."

Stories The stories are listed as they appear in the 1947 collection, first edition. Dates and original publishers in periodicals are indicated.Millichap, 1992 p. 136: Selected Bibliography The two novellas ("The Circus in the Attic" and "Prime Leaf") were placed by Warren at the beginning and the end respectively, bracketing the short fiction cycle.Millichap, 1992 p. 69: Warren himself arranged the table of contents order for the 1947 volume.

"The Circus in the Attic" (Cosmopolitan, September 1947) "Blackberry Winter" (Cummington Press, 1946)Millichap, 1992 p. 17: First appeared as a stand alone "chapbook" by Cummington. "When the Light Gets Green" (Southern Review, Spring 1936) "Christmas Gift" (Virginia Quarterly Review, Winter 1937) "Goodwood Comes Back" (Southern Review, (Winter 1941) "The Patented Gate and the Mean Hamburger" (Mademoiselle, January 1947) "A Christian Education" (Mademoiselle, January 1945) "The Love of Elsie Barton: A Chronicle" (Mademoiselle, December 1946) "Testament of Flood" (Magazine , March–April 1935) "The Confession of Brother Grimes" (New English Review, June 1946) "Her Own People" (Virginia Quarterly Review, April 1935) "The Life and Work of Professor Roy Millen" (Mademoiselle, February 1943) "The Unvexed Isles" (Magazine , July–August 1934) "Prime Leaf" (American Caravan , 1931)Millichap, 1992 p. 5: "His first published fiction was the novella 'Prime Leaf'" (1930) [sic]

Background

These works were written over a period of 15 years (1930-1946) when Warren was in his 20s and 30s.Millichap, 1992 p. 8Shepherd, 1979 p. 104

Biographer Joseph R. Millichap notes that "Warren's production of the [short story] genre is limited by comparison to the other genre in his canon, and he clearly stopped writing short fiction as such relatively early in his career."Millichap, 1992 p. 5Shepherd, 1979 p. 104

Most of Warren's post-1947 short stories—numbering around fifteen—were excerpted from material he was developing for his novels.Shepherd, 1979 p 115: "Cass Mastern's Wedding Ring" (1944) was derived from a vignette related to the writing of All the King's Men (1946).

Reception Kirkus Reviews compares the stories favorably to Sherwood Anderson's Winesburg, Ohio (1919) and to Edgar Lee Masters' Spoon River Anthology (1915). The review summarizes the title story as "the dream life of a frustrated man whose one excursion into adventure in his boyhood, when he ran away to join a circus, is immortalized through his subsequent dull life, dominated by women, in the building of the circus in the attic."Kirkus, date not listed

Noting Warren's association with the agrarianism of the Fugitives of the New Criticism, literary critic Nathan Glick at Commentary (June 1948) writes:

Critical appraisal Literary critic Joseph R. Millichap observes that Warren's short fiction has been largely overlooked in comparison to the fulsome analysis afforded his work in poetry, novels and critical essays.Millichap, 1992 p. 103

Despite Warren's success in producing a number of impressive short stories, his work in this literary genre is distinctly inferior, in quantity and quality, to his major works as a poet and novelist. Biographer Allen G. Shepherd reports that Warren never fully engaged with his short fiction: "The stories did not, for the most part, represent major efforts...more importantly, the form itself seems to have inhibited Warren's natural talents and inclinations."Shepherd, 1979 p. 104-105: His stories "undistinguished" and "awkwardly constructed..." Shepherd adds that most of these early works are "surprisingly undistinguished" and attributes this to Warren's inexperience as a writer, and the fact that he often produced them for quick sale to the slicks.Shepherd, 1979 p. 104: "...often either slight or awkwardly constructed."Millichap, 1992 p. 5-6

Millichap writes that Warren himself "acknowledges only three or four of his short fictions as worthy of his efforts..."Millichap, 1992 p. 6:

Biographer Rudolph Runyon cites several critics who deem Warren's short fiction flawed in structure and contrived in plot, and reports that Warren considered the stories in The Circus in the Attic "a kind of accident," having sacrificed his poetic art in order to write his short fiction.Runyon, 1985 p. 117: Warren admitted to "killing poems to write write short stories."Millichap, 1992 p. 103: Runyon's assessment "proves more positive" than Shepherd's. Runyon has a much better opinion of the collection, and provides concise analysis of its contents.Runyon, 1985 pp. 117-133

Millichap regards the volume as episodic, thus generating its own synergy:

Theme Millichap provides an insight into the thematic significance of the collection's title: "Warren's ideology involves the romance of southern history, and thus his intertextuality contrasts history and romance...The overall theme of the romance of southern history, metaphorically represented by the image of the circus in the attic, or imagination transforming memory, pervades the volume, as it does Warren's whole canon."Millichap, 1992 p. 6-7: Composite quote for brevity, clarity, meaning unaltered.

Millichap adds that "the romance of southern history is the major unifying theme of the entire collection..."Millichap, 1992 p. 8:

The theme of initiation is especially evident in the collection, exemplified in "Blackberry Winter", "When the Light Goes Green", and "Christmas Gift" - and also in "A Christian Education", "Testament of Flood", and "Prime Leaf".

Footnotes

Sources Kirkus Reviews. "Book Reviews: The Circus in the Attic" Kirkus Reviews. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/robert-penn-warren/circus-in-the-attic/AND OTHER STORIES Retrieved 25 February 2024. Glick, Nathan. 1948. "The Southern Temper: The Circus in the Attic and Other Stories by Robert Penn Warren" Commentary, June 1948. https://www.commentary.org/articles/nathan-glick/the-circus-in-the-attic-and-other-stories-by-robert-penn-warren/ Retrieved 23 February 2024. Higgins, Sara B. 1990. "Robert Penn Warren's Short Fiction: His Theory, His Stories, and His Critics" Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton, Florida August 1990. https://fau.digital.flvc.org/islandora/object/fau%3A11422/datastream/OBJ/view/Robert_Penn_Warren_s_short_fiction__His_theory__his_stories__and_his_critics.pdf Retrieved 27 February 2024. Millichap, Joseph R. 1992. Robert Penn Warren: A Study of the Short Fiction. Twayne Publishers, Runyon, Randolph P. 1985. "The View From the Attic: Robert Penn Warren's Circus Stories" Mississippi Quarterly, Spring 1985 in Robert Penn Warren: A Study of the Short Fiction. pp. 117–132 Twayne Publishers, Shepherd, Allen G. 1979. "Prototype, Byblow and Reconception: Notes on the Relation of Warren's The Circus in the Attic to His Novels and Poetry" Mississippi Quarterly, Winter 1979-1980 in Robert Penn Warren: A Study of the Short Fiction. pp. 104–116 Twayne Publishers, Warren, Robert Penn. 1947. The Circus in the Attic and Other Stories. A Harvest Book, Harcourt Brace & Company, New York. Gordon Weaver, editor (paperback).