Robert Penn Warren's short fiction: His theory, his stories, and his critics

Robert Penn Warren is an accomplished poet, novelist, teacher, and critic. Critics of his work consider the short story to be the weakest genre in his canon; however, an examination of each of the fourteen stories in The Circus in the Attic and Other Stories with a combination reader-response, historical, and analytical reading proves that some of the stories are very good. A comparison of these stories with "Technical Problems and Principles in the Composition of Fiction--A Summary," the appendix of Understanding Fiction, an outstanding textbook co-authored by Warren, emphasizes their quality. The stories should not be grouped under the label "Stories of Robert Penn Warren," but rather they should be read, enjoyed, and judged as individual works of art.