The Program
The Fugitive was an influential literary magazine devoted to poetry and published by a group of writers and intellectuals known as "The Fugitives" who gathered around Vanderbilt University in the early 20th century. This is the story of four of those poets – John Crowe Ransom, Donald Davidson, Allen Tate and Robert Penn Warren – and how these Nashville poets would forever impact literature and redefine southern poetry.
This NPT original production was made possible by a grant from the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission. Archival materials, poetry recordings and research assistance generously provided by Vanderbilt University Special Collections. Additional photographs courtesy of the Library of Congress and the Tennessee State Museum.
Interviews
Jay Clayton, Scholar
Professor and Chair of the Department of English at Vanderbilt University, Clayton received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia and is the author of several books including Charles Dickens in Cyberspace, winner of the Suzanne M. Glasscock Humanities Prize.
Michael Kreyling, Scholar
Professor of English at Vanderbilt University, Kreyling received his Ph.D. from Cornell University and is the author of six books includingFigures of the Hero in Southern Narrative and Inventing Southern Literature, which won the Eudora Welty Prize.
Wyatt Prunty, Poet
Professor of English at Sewanee, the University of the South, Prunty earned his Ph.D. from LSU and is the founding director of the Sewanee Writers' Conference and editor of the Sewanee Writers' Series. He is the author of six collections of poetry including Unarmed and Dangerous: New and Selected Poems.
Louis D. Rubin Jr., Author, Publisher
Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at UNC Chapel Hill, Rubin co-founded Algonquin Books and is the author or editor of more than 50 titles. A literary critic, historian, editor and novelist, his entire career was focused on Southern literature. He founded the Society for the Study of Southern Literature and co-founded the Southern Literary Journal. His numerous honors include the Academy Award in Literature from the American Academy of Arts in Letters and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the National Book Critics Circle.
Resources
Vanderbilt University: Fugitives and Agrarians
The Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture: The Fugitives
Academy of American Poets: A Brief Guide to the Fugitives
Library of Congress Poet Laureate
The Tennessee Encyclopedia: John Crowe Ransom
The Tennessee Encyclopedia: Donald Davidson
The Tennessee Encyclopedia: Allen Tate
The Tennessee Encyclopedia: Robert Penn Warren
Vanderbilt University: Warren's book "Who Speaks for the Negro?"
Vanderbilt University: Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities
Reference Materials
The Burden of Time: The Fugitives and Agrarians
John L. Stewart
1965
The Fugitives: A Critical History
John M. Bradbury
1958
Who Speaks for the Negro?
Robert Penn Warren
1965
The Fugitive Group: A Literary History
Louise Cowan
1959
I'll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition
Twelve Southerners
1930
The Fugitive Legacy: A Critical History
Charlotte H. Beck
2001
The Southern Agrarians
Paul K. Conkin
2001
The Fugitive Poets: Modern Southern Poetry in Perspective
William C. Pratt
1965
The Wary Fugitives: Four Poets and the South
Louis D. Rubin, Jr.
1978
This NPT original production was made possible by a grant from the Metropolitan Nashville Arts Commission. Archival materials, poetry recordings and research assistance generously provided by Vanderbilt University Special Collections.
Additional photographs courtesy of the Library of Congress and the Tennessee State Museum.
