John Crowe Ransom and Allen Tate

The late Marion Montgomery was professor emeritus of English at the University of Georgia. In 2003, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute honored Montgomery with the Gerhart Niemeyer Award for Distinguished Contributions to Scholarship in Liberal Arts. He lived in Crawford, Georgia.

• Table of ContentsPreface      I. The Setting Forth      II. Of Children and Kittens      III. Getting at the Truth: The Nature of Intellect in Act      IV. The Mystery of Nature and the Brooding Breast of Love      V. Of Natural Rights and Natural Law: A Speculative Beginning      VI. The Problem of Getting to Know Natural Rights from Natural Law      VII. Concerning the Impieties of Aberrant Will      VIII. Loving the South, at a Growing Distance      IX. The Specialization of Applied Prosody      X. Angelism and the Poet’s Made World      XI. Ownership vs. Stewardship: Signposts at the Parting of Ways      XII. The “Cranky” Distinction Between Poetry and Religion      Afterword      Notes      Index

“taking as his starting point a philosophical antagonism between Ranson and Tate, Montgomery explores such problems as the power of ‘well-ordered words’ and an individual’s ‘essential unity of intellect’ in relation to the creator and creation”—American Literature; “engaging...readers...will be rewarded in reading [Montgomery]”—Modern Age; “I regard Marion Montgomery as one of the most acute and profound criticis of present-day American culture. He brings to his discussion of it penetrating insight and solid scholarship.”—Cleanth Brooks.