The Fugitive Legacy: A Critical History

Previously, the proteges of John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, Donald Davidson, and Robert Penn Warren have received considerable scholarly attention only as individuals or in relation to small groups of close-knit writers within single literary genres. Now, for the first time, this far-ranging group of accomplished writers is united as part of a larger phenomenon, the Fugitive legacy, which has extended its influence far beyond the parameters of southern literature. In The Fugitive Legacy, Charlotte H. Beck demonstrates the strong influence of the Nashville Fugitives as teachers, editors, and mentors by examining the extraordinary impact on American letters of the critics, poets, and fiction writers whom they taught or sponsored. By treating the careers of these brilliant authors as a single chapter in literary history, Beck makes an invaluable contribution to the understanding of southern literature. The cultural importance of the Fugitives has too often been confused with the narrow politics of Agrarianism and relegated to a reactionary piety for regionalism and dead tradition. The Fugitive Legacy fills a void in southern literary theory by revealing the resounding echo of this group’s voice in modern American literature.