Robert Penn Warren's novel All the King's Men was published in 1946. The nursery rhyme "Humpty Dumpty" inspired the film's title. The novel depicts the narrative of Willie Stark, a charismatic populist governor in the Depression-era Deep South, and his political manoeuvrings. It's widely assumed that it was partially based on the true story of US Senator Huey P. Long, who was slain in 1935. In 1947, Warren won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel All the King's Men. It was converted into two films with the same title, one in 1949 and the other in 2006, with the 1949 version winning the Academy Award for Best Picture.