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John Green: ‘I devoured the Sweet Valley High books in the 1980s’

the GuardianEnglish

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The American author on being inspired by Kurt Vonnegut, coming late to Jane Austen, and the brilliance of Robert Penn Warren

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Section: Books
By: Guardian staff reporter
Published: Oct 16, 2026, 9:00 AM UTC
Updated: Oct 16, 2026, 10:39 AM UTC

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#john #green #devoured #sweet #valley #books,culture,fiction

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Robert Penn Warren

American poet, novelist, and literary critic (1905–1989)

Robert Penn Warren was an American poet, novelist, literary critic and professor at Yale University. He was one of the founders of New Criticism. He was also a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers. He founded the literary journal The Southern Review with Cleanth Brooks in 1935. He received the 1947 Pulitzer Prize for the Novel for All the King's Men (1946) and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry in 1958 and 1979. He is the only person to have won Pulitzer Prizes for both fiction and poetry. Yale awarded Warren an honorary Doctor of Letters degree in 1973.

Jane Austen

English novelist (1775–1817)

Jane Austen was an English writer known primarily for her six novels, which implicitly interpret, critique, and comment on the English landed gentry at the end of the 18th century.

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John Green: ‘I devoured the Sweet Valley High books in the 1980s’

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Robert Penn Warren

Jane Austen

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Robert Penn Warren

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