Allen Tate was born in Nashville, Tennessee, in 1899. He was the youngest of four children and attended Vanderbilt University, where he received a Bachelor of Arts degree. He then studied at the University of Virginia and the University of Wisconsin, where he received a Master of Arts degree in English. In 1923 Tate joined the faculty of Vanderbilt University, where he remained for thirty years until his death in 1985
His scholarship focused on American literature, particularly that of the Southern tradition. During his long career Tate published numerous books and numerous articles on the authors he studied, including Edgar Allan Poe, William Faulkner, Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, John Browning, William Carlos Williams, Allen Tate himself, and Robert Penn Warren. His collected papers are held at Vanderbilt University.
Culture is the study of perfection, and the constant effort to achieve it.Allen Tate
Men expect too much do too little.Allen Tate
Narcissism and the Confederate dead cannot be connected logically, or even historically; even were the connection an historical fact, they would not stand connected as art, for no one experiences raw history.Allen Tate
