On August 1, 1943, Allen Tate took up his duties as the second Consultant in Poetry at the Library of Congress. With the assistance of Frances Neel Cheney, Tate surveyed the Library's collections in American and English poetry and produced Sixty American Poets 1896-1944. He proposed and helped to create the Fellows of the Library of Congress in American Letters, hoping that this group would influence the development of the Library’s collections. Tate also served as the first editor of the newly created Quarterly Journal of the Library of Congress, a publication that systematically described the Library’s latest acquisitions. Tate served one term as poet laureate, finishing his duties in July 1944.
This guide compiles
links to resources on Allen Tate throughout the Library
of Congress Web site, as well as links to external Web sites
that include features on his life or selections
of his work. To suggest additions to this guide, please contact the Digital Reference Section.
LISTEN:Academy of American Poets thirty-fifth anniversary program featuring Elizabeth Bishop, Louise Bogan, Robert Fitzgerald, Robert Lowell, Allen Tate, and John Hall Wheelock, chancellors of the academy, reading their poems in the Coolidge Auditorium, May 5, 1969. From the Archive of Recorded Poetry and Literature.
"Edgar Bowers and Allen Tate"
By David Yezzi. Paper presented at How Shall a Generation Know Its Story: The Edgar Bowers Conference & Exhibition, April 11, 2003
Excerpt of first chapter of
Thomas A. Underwood's Allen Tate: Orphan of the South (Princeton University Press, 2000)
Princeton University Press Web site
Perspectives in American Literature
Bibliography of Tate's primary writings, as well as a selected bibliography of book-length criticism from 1980-present.
Reviews of Books about Tate
Atlantic Monthly review of Thomas A. Underwood's Allen Tate: Orphan of the South (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2000).
Modern American Poetry
Excerpts of criticism about Tate's "Ode to the Confederate Dead," a biographical essay, and links to external resources.
Perspectives in American Literature Bibliography of Tate's primary writings, as well as a selected bibliography of book-length criticism from 1980-present.