John Crowe Ransom, 1888-1974. American author and critic
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Finding-Aid for the John Crowe Ransom Papers [00302]Collection Description
Papers, 1939-198111 items
Access: Open
John Crowe Ransom was born in 1888 in Pulaski, Tennessee. He received an undergraduate degree from Vanderbilt University in 1909, studied as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, and served in the First World War. A highly influential member of the Southern Agrarian Movement, he was a professor at Vanderbilt during the 1920’s. He later accepted a position at Kenyon College, where he became founder and editor of The Kenyon Review, remaining there until his retirement in 1959. Ransom published three volumes of poetry during the 1920’s, but after 1927 principally devoted himself to critical writing, authoring I’ll Take My Stand (1930), God without Thunder (1930), and The World’s Body (1938).
John Crowe Ransom to Weldon Kees 1939: Oct. 25. 1 item (1 p.) TLS. Discusses several poems by Kees being considered for publication in The Kenyon Review. John Crowe Ransom to Robert Duncan 1944: Oct. 26. 1 item (1 p.): TLS. Declining to publish "The African Elegy,' a poem by Duncan, which had previously been accepted by The Kenyon Review, after Ransom became aware of its references to homosexuality. Robert Duncan to John Crowe Ransom [1944: Nov.] 1 item (3 pp.): TL. Ts. and ms. draft of a letter from Robert Duncan to John Crowe Ransom, defending the publication of "The African Elegy" on the basis of the poet’s right to use his experience as the matter of his poetry and appealing to the right of free speech. John Crowe Ransom to Robert Duncan 1944: Dec. 6. 1 item (2 pp.): TLS. Ts. letter signed, from John Crowe Ransom to Robert Duncan, further explaining his rejection of "The African Elegy," and disagreeing that it ought to be printed on the basis of the right of free speech. John Crowe Ransom to Robert Duncan 1945: Mar. 1. 1 item (1 p.): TLS. Ts. letter signed, from Ransom, refusing to consider publication of the Ransom-Duncan correspondence on the subject of homosexuality and poetry. John Crowe Ransom to Robert Duncan 1957: Aug. 14. 1 item (1 p.): TLS. Ts. letter signed, from John Crowe Ransom to Robert Duncan, rejecting “this verse of yours” for publication in The Kenyon Review. 1957: Aug. 23. 1 item (1 p.): TLS. Ts. letter signed, from John Crowe Ransom to Robert Duncan, further explaining his rejection of Duncan’s (and much other contemporary) poetry. 1957: Sept. 23. 1 item (1 p.): ALS. Autograph letter signed, from John Crowe Ransom to Robert Duncan, thanking him for his recent note and rejecting another of Duncan’s poems, “Mother Noah.” Robert Duncan to Henry Wenning 1967: Nov. 9. 1 item (2 pp.): ALS. Autograph letter signed, from Robert Duncan to Henry Wenning, explaining the group of Ransom-Duncan correspondence. Add 1978: Aug. 2: Duncan, Robert Edward. "The Homosexual in Society" [essay]. 1944: Aug. Photocopy of article printed in Politics. Add 1981: Sept 29, 1 item. Robert Duncan to George Leite 1 item (1p.) TL. Regarding correspondence with John Crowe Ransom.
Selected Names
Duncan, Robert, 1919-1988. American author.Ransom, John Crowe, 1888-1974. American author and critic.
Wenning, Henry, 1911-1987. American bookseller.