Marion Hoyt Montgomery, Jr., is a Southern novelist, poet, and critic whose work reveals an understanding of himself as an inheritor and preserver of traditional values, particularly (though not exclusively) as they are embodied in his own region's past and present.

Montgomery was born in Thomaston, Georgia, and has lived most of his life in his native state, except for a tour of duty in the U.S. Army during 1943 to 1946 and two years (1956 to 1958) as a student in the writing program at the University of Iowa. He studied at the University of Georgia from 1947 to 1953, where he received his B.A. and M.A. degrees. Montgomery served as assistant director of the University of Georgia Press (1951 to 1953) and as business manager of the Georgia Review (1951 to 1953). He taught during 1953-1954 at the Darlington School for Boys in Rome, Georgia. In 1954 Montgomery became an instructor in English at...