John Crowe Ransom (1888-1974), American poet, critic, and agrarian champion, was the center of the "Fugitive" group, of the Southern Agrarians, and of the New Critics.

John Crowe Ransom was born in Pulaski, Tennessee., on April 30, 1888. He received his bachelor of arts degree from Vanderbilt University in 1909. He was appointed a Rhodes scholar and was in residence at Christ Church, Oxford, from 1910 to 1913, earning a bachelor of arts degree. From 1914 to 1937 he was a member of the faculty at Vanderbilt, except for the World War I years, when he was a first lieutenant in the U.S. Army. In 1920 he married Robb Reavell; the couple had three children.

Vanderbilt and the Fugitives

As a young instructor at Vanderbilt, Ransom assembled a group of poets, calling themselves "Fugitives"; he created and edited the magazine for their expression, the Fugitive. They opposed both the traditional sentimentality of Southern writing and...