Allen Tate (1899-1979)

Biography

John Orley "Allen" Tate was born in Winchester, Kentucky, on November 19, 1899. Educated at numerous schools growing up, Tate eventually decided to attend Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, where he graduated magna cum laude and as a member of Phi Beta Kappa in 1922. He had already become a published poet and cofounder of The Fugitive--a literary review focusing on the formal techniques of poetry and defending the traditional values of the agrarian South, and a member of the group of that same name, joining other poets such as Merill Moore and Robert Penn Warren. Upon leaving Vanderbilt, Tate took a job teaching high school in West Virginia in 1924. He met his wife, Caroline Gordon, while in West Virginia spending time with long-time friend and roommate at Vanderbilt—Robert Penn Warren. For the next few years, the Tates lived in New York City while Allen worked as a critic and free-lance writer.

After receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship, the Tates moved to France and became friends with many of the expatriates. In 1930, he and his wife settled down in the small town of Clarksville, Tennessee, and for the next three decades Tate taught at several universities. He taught poetry at Princeton from 1939-1942, and eventually retired from teaching at the University of Minnesota in 1951. Tate died in 1979.

Bibliography

     Fiction

     Non-Fiction

     Poetry

     Short Fiction

Sources and Links

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