One of the early-twentieth century Southern intellectuals and artists of the early twentieth century known as the Agrarians, Allen Tate wrote poetry that was rooted strongly in that region's past—in the land, the people, and the traditions of the American South as well as in the forms and concerns of the classic poets. In "Ode to the Confederate Dead"— generally recognized as his greatest poem—he delineates both the horror of the sight of rows of tombstones at a Confederate cemetery and the honor that such sacrifice embodies, resulting in "a masterpiece that could not be transcended" (William Pratt).
The Fathers is the powerful novel by the poet and critic recognized as one of the great men of letters of our time, Alan Tate. Old Major Buchan of Pleasant Hill, Fairfax County, Virginia, lived by a gentlemen’s agreement to ignore what was base or rude, to live a life which was gentle and comfortable because it was formal. Into this life George Posey came dashing, as Henry Steele Commager observed, “to defy Major Buchan, marry Susan, betray Charles and Semmes, dazzle young Lacy, challenge and destroy the old order of things.” “Great novel of the broken South.”—George Steiner in The New Yorker “A psychological horror story...concerned with life rather than death, with significance rather than with futility.”—Henry Steele Commager “The story displays so much imagination and such a profound reflection upon life that it cannot be neglected by anyone interested in contemporary literature.”—Edwin Muir “A masterpiece of formal beauty...deserves to be recognized as one of the most outstanding novels of our time.”—Janet Adam-Smith in The New Statesmen “It is one of the most remarkable novels of our time...[It] is in fact the novel GONE WITH THE WIND ought to have been.”—Arthur Mizener
Written early in Tate’s career, this study of the Confederacy’s fallen leader is highly critical of his flaws yet ultimately sympathetic to the Southern cause.
In this vivid portrait of one of the South’s ablest (and most enigmatic) commanders, Allen Tate portrays the warrior whom Lee would mourn as "his right arm." Southern Classics Series.
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