Episode 40: Can All the King's Men Put Us Back Together Again? Artwork

Great American Novel

Few literary terms are more hotly debated, discounted, or derided than the "Great American Novel." But while critics routinely dismiss the phrase as at best hype and as at worst exclusionary, the belief that a national literature commensurate with both the scope and the contradictions of being American persists. In this podcast Scott Yarbrough and Kirk Curnutt examine totemic works such as Herman Melville's Moby-Dick and Toni Morrison's Beloved that have been labeled GANs, exploring their themes, forms, and reception histories, asking why, when, and how they entered the literary canon. Readers beware: there be spoilers here, and other hijinks ensue...

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Great American Novel

Episode 40: Can All the King's Men Put Us Back Together Again?

May 29, 2026 • Scott Yarbrough and Kirk Curnutt • Season 5 • Episode 40

0:00 | 1:22:37

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Episode 40 of the Great American Novel Podcasts discusses one of the great American novels of the Twentieth Century, one that is perhaps more significant and relevant now than it has been in quite some time. In this episode your feckless hosts discuss All the King’s Men, Robert Penn Warren’s 1946 Pulitzer Prize winning novel. Warren tells the story of Willie Stark, a country boy turned crusading attorney turned backroom deal-making, power-wielding governor of a southern state during the Depression era, whose integrity is battered by the prevailing winds of need and corruption and ambition. Stark is inspired by and associated with Louisiana Governor and US Senator Huey “Kingfish” Long. One of the questions asked by your hosts is whether or not readers are better served by casting aside the real life inspiration and focusing instead on the stories of Stark as well as of Jack Burden, the former reporter turned fixer, and his longtime friends Adam and Anne Stanton. Warren is the only writer who has received the Pulitzer for both fiction and poetry; he was also a winner of the National Book Award and was a Rhodes Scholar as well as a winner of both the Guggenheim Genius Grant and the MacArthur Fellowship.

Mini-clips of trailers from All the King’s Men, 1949, dir. Robert Rossen, and All the King’s Men, 2006, Steven Zallian.
Canon fodder for this episode Is Inman Majors’ 2009 novel, The Millionaires.

All opinions are the hosts' own and do not reflect the points of view of their employers, publishers, relatives, pets, or accountants.

All show music is by Lobo Loco. The intro song is “Old Ralley”; the intermission is “The First Moment,” and the outro is “Inspector Invisible.” For more information visit: https://locolobomusic.com/.