The breadth of Allen Tate's publications and other activities is almost astonishing. He was a poet, critic, novelist, playwright, reviewer, editor, translator, bibliographer, lecturer, and teacher. His influence was prodigious, his circle of acquaintances immense. His friends included many of the great writers of this century: Hart Crane, John Crowe Ransom, Robert Penn Warren, T. S. Eliot, Archibald MacLeish, John Peale Bishop, Ford Madox Ford, Jacques Maritain. His acquaintances included Gertrude Stein, Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Wallace Stevens. Tate belonged to the Fugitives, a group that spurred the southern renaissance in the early 1920s, and helped to edit their magazine. He galvanized the forces of the southern Agrarian movement and helped to edit their anthologies. His theoretical and practical criticism are fundamental to the "school" of New Criticism, in which he was a central figure. He was a pioneer in the teaching of creative writing in...