All the King's Men by Robert Penn Warren

First published: 1946

Type of work: Novel

Type of plot: Social realism

Time of plot: Late 1920’s and early 1930’s

Locale: Southern United States

Principal characters

• Jack Burden, a journalist and political lackey
• Willie Stark, a political boss
• Sadie Burke, his mistress
• Anne Stanton, a social worker
• Adam Stanton, her brother
• Judge Irwin, unintimidated by Stark

The Story

When Governor Willie Stark tries to intimidate old Judge Irwin of Burden’s Landing, the judge stands firm against the demagogue’s threats. As a result, Willie orders Jack Burden to find a scandal in the judge’s past that could ruin the elderly man.

Jack met Willie back in 1922, when Willie, the county treasurer, and Lucy Stark, his schoolteacher wife, were fighting against a corrupt building contractor who was constructing the new schoolhouse. Sent by his newspaper, The Chronicle, to investigate, Jack found that both Willie and Lucy lost their jobs but were still fighting graft. Two years later, when the fire escape of the school collapsed during a fire drill, Willie became a hero.

He thereupon ran for governor in the Democratic primary race, in which there were two factions. Jack covered the campaign. Because it was expected to be a close race, someone from one side, that supporting Harrison, proposed that Willie be used as a dummy candidate to split one group of rural voters who supported MacMurfee. Tiny Duffy and others convinced Willie that he could save the state. By then, Willie was a lawyer and politically ambitious. Supporting him was Sadie Burke, a clever, energetic woman with political skill. Inadvertently she revealed Harrison’s plan to Willie. Crushed at this news, Willie rallied and offered to campaign for MacMurfee, who was elected. Willie practiced law until 1930; he then ran for governor with the assistance of Sadie Burke, who became his mistress, and Tiny Duffy, who was Willie’s political jackal.

Meanwhile, Jack quit his job on The Chronicle. Reared by a mother who remarried after Ellis Burden deserted her, Jack became a faithless, homeless cynic who practiced his profession without believing in its higher aims. He, in his youth, played with Anne and Adam Stanton, the children of the governor. Adam was now a famous surgeon, and Anne, still unmarried, was a welfare worker. Jack was in love with Anne, but time placed a barrier between him and the girl with whom he fell in love during the summer after he came home to Burden’s Landing from college. He was twenty-one then, she seventeen. Even then, however, Jack’s youthful cynicism damaged him in Anne’s eyes. When Jack went to work for Governor Willie Stark, Jack’s mother was deeply pained and Judge Irwin was disgusted, but Jack cared little for their opinions.

By 1933, Willie was on the verge of losing his wife, who could no longer tolerate her husband’s political maneuvers and his treatment of their son, Tom. Willie assured Jack that Lucy knew nothing about Sadie Burke. Lucy remained with Willie through his reelection, in 1934, and then retired to her sister’s farm. She appeared with Willie in public only for the sake of his reputation.

When Jack begins to dig into Judge Irwin’s financial transactions during the time when he was attorney general under Governor Stanton, he learns that the government sued a power company for a large sum. The company bribed the attorney general by firing one of its men and giving the highly paid job to Irwin. Later, the man who was fired, Littlepaugh, committed suicide after writing the facts in a letter to his sister. Miss Littlepaugh tells Jack the story.

Willie Stark’s six-million-dollar hospital project makes it necessary to use the scandal Jack uncovered. Willie tells Jack that he wants Adam Stanton to head the new hospital. It would, Jack knew, be a ridiculous offer to the aloof and unworldly young doctor, but he makes an effort to convince Adam to take the post. Adam flatly refuses. A few days later, Anne sends for Jack. She, too, wants Adam to take the position. Jack shows Anne the documents proving that Judge Irwin accepted a bribe and that Governor Stanton attempted to cover up for his friend. Knowing that Adam would want to protect his father’s good name, Anne shows the evidence to him, after which he agrees to head the hospital.

Later, Jack wonders how Anne knew about the plans for the hospital, because neither he nor Adam told her. Jack’s suspicions are confirmed when Sadie Burke, in a torrent of rage, tells him that Willie is betraying her. Jack knows then that Anne is the cause. Disillusioned, he packs a suitcase and drives to California. Once he completes the journey to the West and back, Jack has his torment under control and goes back to work for Willie.

One of MacMurfee’s men tries to bribe Adam to select a man named Larson as the builder of the medical center. Adam, outraged, decides to resign, whereupon Anne phones Jack for the first time since he learned of her affair with Willie. Anne and Jack decide to persuade Adam to sign a warrant against the man who tried to bribe him. Jack warns Anne, however, that as a witness she will be subject to public scrutiny of her relationship with Willie, but she says she does not care. Jack asks her why she is associating with Willie. She says that after learning about Governor Stanton’s dishonesty in the past, she does not care what happens to her. Later, Jack persuades Adam not to bring suit.

After Willie’s political enemy, MacMurfee, tries to blackmail him because of a scandal concerning Tom Stark, Willie orders Jack to use his knowledge to make Judge Irwin throw his weight against MacMurfee’s blackmail attempt. When Jack goes to Burden’s Landing to confront Judge Irwin with the evidence that he obtained from Miss Littlepaugh, the old man shoots himself. In the excitement following the suicide, Jack’s mother tells him that he caused his father’s death. Belatedly, Jack discovers the reason for Ellis Burden’s desertion. In his will, Judge Irwin leaves his estate to his son, Jack Burden.

There seems to be only one way left to handle MacMurfee. Willie decides to give the building contract for the hospital to MacMurfee’s man, Larson, who in turn will suppress the scandal about Tom. Duffy makes the arrangements. Tom is a football hero. One Saturday during a game, his neck is broken. Adam reports that Tom will remain paralyzed for life. When he hears this, Willie tells Duffy that the hospital deal is off. He breaks things off with Sadie Burke and Anne and turns back to Lucy.

Duffy, driven too far by Willie, telephones Adam and tells him that Anne is responsible for his appointment. Adam knows nothing of his sister’s relationship with the governor. He goes to her apartment to denounce her. After that, in the hall of the state building, Adam shoots Willie and is killed immediately afterward by Willie’s bodyguard.

Piece by piece, the tangled mess of Jack’s life begins to take on new meaning. He separates himself from every particle of his past with the exception of two people: his mother, whose devotion to Judge Irwin over all the years reveals a new personality to Jack’s eyes, and Anne, whom he marries.

Bibliography

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