The Fugitives were a group of poets and literary scholars who came together at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennesee around 1920. They published a small literary magazine called The Fugitive from 1922-1925 which showcased their works. Although its published life was brief, The Fugitive is considered to be one of the most influential publications in the history of American letters. The Fugitives made Vanderbilt a fountainhead of the New Criticism, the dominant mode of textual analysis in English during the first half of the twentieth century. Even apart from this, the group would be remarkable for the number of its members whose works would claim a permanent place in the literary canon. Vanderbilt University Vanderbilt University (colloquially known as Vandy) is a private, nonsectarian, coeducational research university in Nashville, Tennessee. ... New Criticism was the dominant trend in English and American literary criticism of the early twentieth century, from the 1920s to the early 1960s. ...

Among the most notable Fugitives were John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, Merrill Moore, Donald Davidson, and Robert Penn Warren. Less closely associated were the critic Cleanth Brooks and the poet Laura Riding. John Crowe Ransom (April 30, 1888 - July 3, 1974) was an American poet, essayist, and social commentator. ... John Orley Allen Tate (November 19, 1899 - February 9, 1979) was an American poet, essayist, and social commentator, and Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, 1943 - 1944. ... Donald Grady Davidson (August 8, 1893 - April 25, 1968) was a U.S. poet, essayist, social and literary critic, and author. ... Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 - September 15, 1989) was an American poet and novelist. ... Cleanth Brooks (1906-1994) was an influential American literary critic and professor. ... Laura (Riding) Jackson (January 16, 1901 - September 2, 1991) was a United States poet, critic, novelist, essayist and short story writer. ...

The Fugitives partly overlapped with a later group, also associated with Vanderbilt, called the Agrarians. The Southern Agrarians or Vanderbilt Agrarians were a group of 12 American Traditionalist writers and poets from the Southern United States who joined together to publish the Agrarian manifesto, a collection of essays entitled Ill Take My Stand in 1930. ...

The Fugitives is also the name of a music/spoken word ensemble from Vancouver The Fugitives are a 4-part music/spoken word ensemble from Vancouver. ...

External links

• Fugitive documentary
• Fugitive resource page
• Fugitives and Agrarians Brief Biographical Sketches from Vanderbilt University Archives