Spring 1935

Allen Tate (1899–1979) was one of the leading writers of the South in the twentieth century. As a member of the Fugitive Poets and the Southern Agrarian movement, through his poetry and essays, he championed a return to the South’s agrarian roots and the use of formal techniques in poetry. He served as consultant in poetry at the Library of Congress in 1943 and was editor of the Sewanee Review from 1944 to 1947. In addition he taught at numerous universities, including Princeton University, New York University, and the University of Minnesota.

John Crowe Ransom (1888–1974) was a teacher, poet, founder of the Kenyon Review, and a father of the New Criticism. From 1937 to 1959, Ransom served as a professor at Kenyon College and his distinguished students included Donald Davidson, Randall Jarrell, Robert Lowell, Andrew Lytle, Allen Tate, Peter Taylor, Robert Penn Warren, and E. L. Doctorow.