Two groups which originated in Nashville: Tennessee, in the early 1920's had a strong influence on American letters. Known as the "Fugitives" and "Agrarian," they included, among others, John Crowe Ransom, Allen Tate, Robert Penn Warren, Donald Davidson and Merrill Moore. This study of their contributions is, as R.W.B. Lewis has written, "a searching, supple, and most of the time brilliantly precise account of thee writing, ideas, and attitudes of...