I'll Take My Stand Collection

Historical Note

I’ll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition  was published in 1930 and was a controversial and much reviewed and talked about manifesto by Twelve Southerners exploring different aspects of the Southern tradition including economics, religion and politics. The eleven authors represented here are in the order of their chapters John Crowe Ransom, Donald Davidson, Frank Lawrence Owsley, John Gould Fletcher, Lyle H. Lanier, Allen Tate, Herman Clarence Nixon, Andrew Lytle, John Donald Wade, Henry Blue Kline, and Stark Young. The contributors came to this project from different backgrounds, although most of them had their careers in academia.

 Robert Penn Warren’s essay was the last to be contributed. Its original title “ The Negro and the Agrarian Community” became “The Briar Patch” in the published book. This essay is not included in this collection.

Donald Davidson ( 1893 - 1968 ) was one of the original Fugitive Poets and one of the four who went on to become Agrarians. He, along with Allen Tate, was not only influential in bringing together the disparate talents for this book, but also instrumental in getting it published by Harper and Brothers Publishers of New York. The title was not wholly agreed upon by the authors, but nonetheless the book came to be published thus.

Descriptive summaries of the chapters and brief and important biographical information about the authors are included in folder 1.

Scope and Contents

This small collection (0.21 linear feet) in a half size Hollinger box contains the original manuscript of I’ll Take My Stand: The South and the Agrarian Tradition that belonged to Donald Davidson, one of the authors. There are eleven chapters, each by a different Agrarian. The chapters are titled and typed.

This manuscript was originally given to the Tennessee State Library and Archives by Donald Davidson on April 26, 1931. It was presented to Vanderbilt University on August 13, 1969 by the Manuscript Section of the Tennessee State Library to be permanently housed in the Fugitive Room of Special Collections and University Archives.

File Listing

1. General description of the book; Title page – Eleven Southerners; Dedication page; Table of Contents; Table of Contents with descriptive summaries; contributors’ biographical notes
2. Mss. by Twelve Southerners; Title page, Dedication page; Table of contents; Introduction
3. Ransom, John Crowe – “Reconstructed but Unregenerate” (29 pp. )
4. Davidson, Donald – “A Mirror for  Artists” (32 pp.)
5. Owsley, Frank Lawrence – “The Irrepressible Conflict” (38 pp.)
6. Fletcher, John Gould – “Education, Past, and Present” (36pp )
7. Lanier, Lyle H. – “A Critique of the Philosophy of Progress” (27 pp.)
8. Tate, Allen – “Religion as Time: and History as Time” ( 15 pp. )
9. Nixon, Herman Clarence – “Whither Southern Economy ?”  (26 pp.)
10. Lytle, Andrew N. – “The Hind Tit “ (34 pp.)
11. Wade, John Donald – “The Life and Death of Cousin Lucius” (38 pp.)
12. Kline, Henry Blue – “William Remington: A Study in Individualism” ( 30pp)
13. Young, Stark – “Not in Memoriam, But in Defense” (35 pp.)

Overview | Complete Finding Aid (pdf)

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Last modified: April 10, 2008
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