The novelette Blackberry Winter was originally published separately in 1946 and subsequently collected in Robert Penn Warren's first and only volume of short stories, The Circus in the Attic, initially published in 1947. Blackberry Winter is widely believed to be Penn's finest work of short fiction. It has been included in many anthologies and has garnered the interest of critics and readers. Since its first publication, critics have noted Warren's deft evocation of the textures and rhythms of rural Tennessee and his ear for dialogue. One of the reasons for the story's popularity is the universal appeal of the narrator, whose boyhood innocence is as convincing as his adult ambivalence and restlessness.