The Tate of Our Souls: The Lost Cause of the Southern Agrarians

  Essay by James McWilliams Few readers, even the well-read, know much about Allen Tate. Those who do know the arcane American poet—usually professors who teach “southern literature”—would likely not label him a humanitarian. Cerebral, distant, combative, self-obsessed—yes—but not a social reformer in any sense of the term. And yet (a million caveats notwithstanding) there […]

James McWilliams

James McWilliams’s writing has appeared in The Paris Review, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Harper’s, The Washington Post, Slate, The American Scholar, Texas Monthly, The Atlantic, and The Virginia Quarterly Review. His current project is a history of art and expression in the 20th-century American South, tentatively titled The Wild Beautiful Poets We Grow by the Road.