Dr. James Perkins, professor of English at Westminster College, has awritten "The Cass Mastern Material: The core of Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men.'"  The book will be offered by the Louisiana State University Press in March 2005.

 "The most interesting thing that I got out of this book is a new interpretation of Warren's "All the King's Men," Perkins said.  "My research shows that the basic plot of the book has been misunderstood by critics for more than 50 years.  Using genetic evidence derived from the descriptions of the major characters [Dr.] Patrick McCarthy (professor of biology at Westminster College) and I were able to eliminate Judge Irwin as Jack's Burden's father.  It took me 10 years to write this book -- five to do the research and five to figure out what the research meant.

 Critics of Perkins' findings are positive.

 "This is assuredly the definitive book on the Cass Mastern story, tracing its gestation through two decades of genre mutations , from short story to play to the core' of Robert Penn Warren's greatest novel," said Victor Strandberg, author of "The Poetic Vision of Robert Penn Warren."

 "In bringing together the matter of Cass Mastern, Perkins has performed an invaluable service for Warren studies, and his learned and daring introduction is certain to provoke spirited discussion," said William Bedford Clark, author of "The American Vision of Robert Penn Warren."  "This volume both broadens and deepens our appreciation of Warren's protean genius, especially his penchant for the theatrical."

 Perkins has published on the subject of Warren a number of times.  In 2000, he co-edited, along with James A. Grimshaw, Jr. "Robert Penn Warren's All the King's Men: Three Stage Versions." More recently he collaborated with Patrick McCarthy and Frank D. Allen, Jr. in writing  "Human Genetics and All the King's Men; The Case of Jack Burden's Paternity"  for Mississippi Quarterly. This volume is his first solo flight in book-length criticism..

 Perkins, who has been with Westminster College since 1973, is also the chair of Westminster's Department of English and Public Relations.  He earned his undergraduate degree from Centre College, his master's from Miami University, and his Ph.D. from the University of Tennessee.  During the fall term of 1998, he was a Fulbright Visiting Professor at Seoul National University in Korea.  He has also been honored as a Henderson Lecturer and McCandless Fellow.  His publication also include three chapbooks of poetry; "For the Record: a Robert Drake Reader, a collection edited with Randy Hendricks; "Snakes, Butterbeans, and the Discovery of Electricity," a collection of short stories; and "Southern Writers at Centuries End," a collection of essays co-edited with Jeffrey Folks.

 For more information, contact Perkins at (724) 946-1973 or e-mail jperkins@westminster.edu.

Dr. James Perkins