John B. Ransom III Collection
Biographical Note
John B. Ransom, III was born September 12, 1920 in Nashville, Tennessee, the son of Marie Litton Howe Ransom and John Bostick Ransom, Jr. He graduated from Wallace
University School and attended Vanderbilt University from 1938-1940. He then transferred to the University of the South (Sewanee) and
received the B.A. in 1942. He served in the U.S. Army in World War II. After the war he attended Stanford University where he earned an M.A. degree in American Literature. His Master’s Essay at Stanford was an analyis of the writings of Robert Penn Warren.
After Stanford he attended Oxford University and the Sorbonne in Paris, France. Later, in Paris he served for ten years as Education Adviser for the Army’s Seine Area
Command. In that position he administered a program in which American military and civilian personnel could earn college credits in courses offered by the University of
Maryland. After Paris he accepted the position of Director of Admissions at Sewanee where he served for many years. Retiring from that position, he became Secretary of
the University until his retirement. He died in Sewanee on March 4, 2000.
Scope and Content Note
This small collection (.21 linear feet ) is comprised of correspondence to John B. Ransom, III from the following:
- C.S. Lewis
- Mrs. Robert Lowell (Jean Stafford)
- Francis Robinson
- Wallace Stegner
- Allen Tate
- Nancy Tate Wood
- Robert Penn Warren
There is other correspondence from Donald Davidson to Marie H. Ransom concerning poems by John B. Ransom, III.
Box Listing
Incoming Correspondence
- Lewis, C.S.
Lowell, Mrs. Robert T.S. (Jean Stafford)
- postmark October 12, 1944
- Robinson, Francis
- December 25, 1937
- November 6, 1942
- May 9, 1943
- February 23, 1949
- February 10, 1964
- December 20, 1966
- Stegner, Wallace
- January 19, 1966
- August 14, ?
- Tate, Allen
- Invitation
- August 21, 1968
- November 15, 1974 - Program of the Celebration of his 75th Birthday
- March 26, 1979 - Nancy Tate Wood on her father’s death
- Warren, Robert Penn
- December 1949 - Christmas greeting from Cinina and Red Warren
- August 15, 1950
- May 2, 1964
Other Correspondence
- November 21, 1944 - Letter to Marie H. Ransom from Donald Davidson, concerning John B. Ransom’s poems with comments by Davidson (letter and 16 pages of poems)
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