Fierce Faith Undying

At least one reputable scholar in the field of American literature has observed that the two most distinguished “groups” in American literary history thus far have been the New England Transcendentalists of the nineteenth century and the Nashville Fugitives of the 1920s. But though the New England Transcendentalists have long since found their repose in Abraham’s bosom (and one suspects that some of them have not found that situation altogether to their idealistic tastes), the Nashville Fugitives, for the most part, are still very much alive and kicking very healthily.

The most distinguished members of the group and, significantly, the very ones who were later to constitute the core of the Agrarian Movement of the early thirties—John Crowe Ransom, Donald Davidson, Allen Tate and Robert Penn Warren—have for some time enjoyed considerable literary prestige, whether as scholars, critics, poets, or novelists—and usually in more than one of these capacities.

RD

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Robert Y. Drake Jr.

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At least one reputable scholar in the field of American literature has observed that the two most distinguished “groups” in American literary history thus far have been the New England Transcendentalists of the nineteenth century and the Nashville Fugitives of the 1920s. But though the New England Transcendentalists have long since found their repose in Abraham’s bosom (and one suspects that some of them have not found that situation altogether to their idealistic tastes), the Nashville Fugitives, for the most part, are still very much alive and kicking very healthily.

The most distinguished members of the group and, significantly, the very ones who were later to constitute the core of the Agrarian Movement of the early thirties—John Crowe Ransom, Donald Davidson, Allen Tate and Robert Penn Warren—have for some time enjoyed considerable literary prestige, whether as scholars, critics, poets, or novelists—and usually in more than one of these capacities.