to stay. Lowell took them at their word,nlater studied with John Crowe Ransom,nand began his career as a poet and anprotege of Allen Tate. The relations ofnthese two suffered, as all of Lowell’s did,nfrom his bouts with mental illness. Butnthe relation endured and prospered asnwell, in the form of Lowell’s work.nSadly enough, the younger poet did notnoutlive his master.nI suppose that the best part of Doreski’snvolume is his tracing of the relationshipsnbetween Tate’s poetry andnLowell’s. His pages on Lowell’s For thenUnion Dead and its status as a transformationnof Tate’s Ode to the ConfederatenDead is effective and compact.nLess interesting, I think, are his recollectionsnof quarrels and misunderstandingsnand resentments that arenephemera once important to the peoplenwho felt them but too often of littlenimportance to others who don’t. Andnthere is an irony in the friendship ofnTate and Lowell that slips away innDoreski’s book, but which is thatnLowell’s self-indulgences both personalnand poetic were the opposite of thenvalues Tate stood for.nThere are some passages in Doreski’snvolume that are open to question.nI wouldn’t say that the opening lines ofnTate’s poem “Aeneas in Washington”n”strike an archaic note,” but rather thatnthey translate lines of Vergil. I don’tnlike either Doreski’s description of thenpostwar atmosphere:nThe McCarthyism of the laten1940s and early 1950s voicedna gnawing desperation innAmerican society. Uncertain ofnour place in an increasinglyncomplex world, threatened bynan ideology as oftennmisunderstood by its adherentsnas its opponents, Americansngrew even more suspicious ofndifference and eccentricity, andnthe arts either became blandlynritualistic or withdrew into annunderground that made thenseparation of culture fromnsociety a virtue. Thencharacteristic verse of the earlyn1950s was Richard Wilbur’snelegant, insightful, but remotenand somehow unchallengingnformal constructs.nThis view of those days trivializes historynby dismissing the texture of it, andndoes nothing to advance the account ofna literary relationship.nNevertheless, Doreski’s book on Tatenand Lowell is a useful one. It is anpleasure to dwell in the mental universenof people to whom poetry meant everything,nand often Doreski succeeds innportraying such a world.nThat world was, both literally andnfiguratively, a province of the Republicnof Letters. Allen Tate’s correspondencenwith Robert Lowell as well as his politicalnand social, not to mention poetic,npresence were major factors in Lowell’snlife. These volumes, then, join ThenLiterary Correspondences of DonaldnDavidson and Allen Tate (1974) andnThe Republic of Letters in America:nLnThe Correspondence of John PealenBishop and Allen Tate (1981) as impressivenremainders of passionately literaryncommunication and culture.nThese volumes too remind us of AllennTate’s centrality, his indispensability,nhis strenuously maintained engagementnwith literary modernism and then20th century. The literary scene todaynis not graced by the equivalent attitude,nerudition, or generosity, though AndrewnLytle still writes, both a survivornand a beneficiary of a better worid. Hisndeep historical sense represents thenculture of the best minds of his generation;nbut he has always been, like AllennTate, an exception.n<^nGREAT TOPICS, GREAT ISSUESnRebirth of a Nation — July 1990 — Jacob Neusner,nJohn Lukacs, Lawrence Uzzell, Daniel Stein, DonaldnDevine, and Richard Lamm on the pros and cons ofnimmigration; Kalherine Dalton on British journalistsnin America, and Donald Huddle on the immigrationnstudies of Julian Simon and George Borjas. PlusnRussell Kirk on Richard Nixon, M. E. Bradford on LB J,nand Kenneth McDonald on Canada’s troublesomenQuebec.nVandals in the Academy —September 1990 — E.D.nHirsch on the importance of lower education, ElizabethnFox-Genovese on women’s studies, Paul Gottfriednon the politics of teaching humanities, andnThomas Molnar on our scrapbook approach to culturalnliteracy. Plus J.O. Tate on Tenured Radicals,nE. Christian Kopff on Paul de Man, Leon T. Hadarnon the intifada, and O.B. Hardison on the StratfordnShakespearean Festival in Ontario.nAmerican Nationalism and the Global Village —nNovember 1990 — Clyde Wilson on Americannnationalism, Samuel Francis on race and group identitynin the “new nationalism,” and Theodore Pappasnon the national service debate. Plus James BondnStockdale on the tragedy of Viemam, William Hawkinsnon international trade and protectionism, and R. CortnKirkwood on the congressional fight for more extensivenidentification papers.nTITLEnRestoring the Earth —August 1990 — Edward O.nWilson on how intelligent development can save thenenvironment, William Jordan on restorationism, JohnnBaden on the U.S. Forest Service, and FredericknTurner on natural technology. Plus Thomas Flemingnon Earth Day, Chilton Williamson on Joseph WoodnKrulch, Michael Warder on Valentin Rasputin, andnKenneth McDonald on the politics of acid rain-ihnCanada.nFamily Liberation — October 1990 — Edwin Westnon restoring family autonomy in education, LeonardnLiggio on how the Total State undermines bothnfamily and religion, John Wauck on Allan Carison’snThe Swedish Experiment in Family Politics, andnThomas Fleming on how moral regulation is a surensign of state despotism. Plus Anne Marie Morgan onnabortion and parental consent, and David Slavitt onnDick Tracy.nGood News — December 1990 — Eight reasons whynthings aren’t as bad as you think: by George Garrett,nE. Christian Kopff, Chilton Williamson Jr., JanenGreer, Odie B. Faulk, Harold O.J. Brojvn, JohnnShelton Reed, and Janet Scott Barlow. Plus argumentsnfor happiness from Thomas Fleming and KatherinenDalton, George Core on George Garrett’s ChristophernMarlowe novel, and Murray Rothbard on ThomasnSowell’s “affirmative scholarship.”nBACK ISSUE ORDER FORM Each issue $5.00 (postage & handling included)nRebirth of a NationnRestoring tlie EartlinVandals in the AcademynFamily LiberationnAmerican Nationalism andnthe Global VillagenGood NewsnNamenCirvnDATEnJuly 1990nAugust 1990nSeptember 1990nOctober 1990nNovember 1990nDecember 1990nAdnQty.nTotal Enclosed $nState Zip _nMail with check to: Chronicles • 934 N. Main Street • Rockford, IL 61103nnnCostnJnJANUARY 1991/35n