Jackson and Andrew Lytle’s of BedfordrnForrest were the work of young men (thernfirst pubhshed books of each author)rntrying to come to terms with theirrnSouthern heritage. Although DonaldrnDavidson had entered middle age beforernwriting his two-volume history ofrnthe Tennessee River, he had wrestled forrnyears with what it meant to be an artistrnand a Southerner. Even a book of oldrnage, such as Andrew Lytle’s A Wake forrnthe Living, is concerned with recreatingrna usable past.rnAmong the classic works of fictionrnreprinted by Sanders are Robert PennrnWarren’s first novel l^ight Rider (set inrnthe Kentucky of his youth), StarkrnYoung’s Civil War romance So Red thernRose, and three volumes by CarolinernGordon—None Shall Look Back, Penhally,rnand Green Centuries. From outsidernthe Fugitive-Agrarian orbit, we havernthe Kentucky regionalism of ElizabethrnMadox Roberts’s The Great Meadow, asrnwell as Owen Wister’s rendering of lifernin post-Civil War Charleston, Lady Baltimore.rnThe 19th-century South is representedrnby the prose elegies of ThomasrnNelson Page’s In Die Virginia (1887) andrnby the tall tales of Augustus BaldwinrnLongstreet’s Georgia Scenes (1835).rnThe best news for teachers of Southernrnliterature is the publication of a revisedrnedition of William Pratt’s historicrnanthology The Fugitive Poets. When thernoriginal edition of this book went outrnof print some years ago, we were leftrnwith no single volume of Fugitive verse.rnHad Sanders and Company done nothingrnmore than revive that edition, withrnPratt’s brilliant critical introduction, itrnwould have been cause for rejoicing. Instead,rnPratt used this opportunity to producernan even better book. The new editionrnincludes expanded selections fromrnthe poets featured in the original volume,rnalong with work by the previouslyrnunrepresented—Sidney Mttron Hirsch,rnAndrew Lytic, Hart Crane, John GouldrnFletcher, Robert Graves, and Laura Riding.rnA comparison of Pratt’s originalrnedition, published in 1965, with the currentrnvolume illustrates the adaptationsrnmade within a living tradition.rnNo doubt, Matthew Arnold was correctrnin arguing that there are both creativernand critical eras in the life of a literaryrnculture. It is generally agreed thatrnthe creative ferment known as thernSouthern Renascence ended shortly afterrnWorld War II. (Whether we are nowrnin the midst of a second flowering is arnsubject for another essay.) With the endrnof the Renascence, however, came anrnincreased critical and scholarly awarenessrnof Southern writing as a literaturernworthy of study.rnIf the writers featured in this seriesrnare among the creative geniuses of thernSouthern muse, the critics and scholarsrnwho have written prefaces for the volumesrnare bearers of the tradition, whatrnJohn Crowe Ransom in “Antique Harvesters”rncalled “keepers of a rite.” In additionrnto Bradford and Pratt, this list includesrnMadison Smartt Bell, GeorgernCore, Thomas Fleming, George Garrett,rnEileen Gregory, James E. Kibler,rnJr., Russell Kirk, Thomas H. Landess,rnWalter Sullivan, Clyde N. Wilson, andrnThomas Daniel Young. The Sandersrnedition of A Wake for the Living joinsrnan author, Andrew Lytle, and a prefacer,rnMadison Bell, born 54 years apart. Bothrnhappen to be novelists and critics of thernfirst order. Together they represent therncontinuing vitality of Southern literature.rnAlthough all true art is in a sense immortal,rnthe material conditions of its existencernhelp to determine its place inrnthe cultural tradition. Books that arernout of print cannot be adopted as classroomrntexts or even enjoy much of a cultrnpopularity outside academia. Existingrneditions are liable to gather dust on libraryrnshelves. (A few years ago, the studentrnemployee stamping some books Irnwas checking out of the Clemson libraryrnnoticed that one of my volumes had lastrnbeen checked out before she was born.)rnJohn Sanders and Mel Bradford haverntaken some neglected treasures off thernshelf and blown the dust away.rn—Mark Royden WinchellrnMURIEL SARAH SPARK, the novelist,rnand European classicist and historianrnWalter Burkert are the recipients ofrnthe 1992 Ingersoll Prizes. Spark receivedrnthe T. S. Eliot Award for Creative Writing;rnand Burkert, the Richard M. WeaverrnAward for Scholarly Letters. The awards,rneach of which carries a cash prize ofrn$20,000, acknowledge writers of abidingrnimportance whose works affirm thernfundamental principles of Western civilization.rnMuriel Spark was born in 1918 in Edinburgh,rnScotland, and graduated fromrnthe Hcriot Watt College. She marriedrnin 1937; moved to Rhodesia; gave birthrnto a son; divorced her husband duringrnWorld War II; and returned to GreatrnBritain by 1944, where she worked forrnthe war effort. During this time, shernwrote critically acclaimed poetry, becomingrneditor of Poetry Review and generalrnsecretary of the Poetry Society inrn1947. After editing several volumes ofrnpoetry in the early 1950’s, she wrote, atrnthe encouragement of her publisher,rnMacMillan, a novel entitled The Comfortersrn(1957). Her 25 works of fictionrnalso include: Memento Mori (1958), ThernPrime of Miss ]ean Brodie (1961), ThernMandelbaum Gate (1965), Bang-BangrnYou’re Dead and Other Stories (1983),rnand Symposium (1990). Her most recentrnbook, Curriculum Vitae (1992), isrnan autobiography of her early life andrnwill soon be published in the UnitedrnStates. She received an Order of thernBritish Empire in 1967 and now residesrnmostly in Italy.rnWalter Burkert was born in Germanyrnin 1931. He studied classical philology,rnhistory, and philosophy at the universitiesrnof Erlangen and Munich from 1950rnto 1954. Since 1969 he has been a professorrnof classical philology at the Universityrnof Zurich in Switzerland. Hisrnmost important book is perhaps HomornNecans: The Anthropology of AncientrnGreek Sacrificial Ritual and Mythrn(1983), which describes sacrifice as thernkey to understanding both ancient andrnmodern human society. His other translatedrnworks include: Lore and Science inrnAncient Pythagoreanism (1972), Structurernand History in Greek Mythology andrnRitual (1979), and Ancient MysteryrnCults (1987). He was Sather Professor ofrnClassical Literature at the University ofrnCalifornia at Berkeley in 1977 and hasrnreceived a variety of awards and honors,rnincluding the Balzan Prize in 1990.rnThe Ingersoll Foundation is the philanthropicrndivision of Ingersoll MillingrnMachine Company of Rockford, Illinois.rnThe Rockford Institute administers thernprizes. Past recipients of the T. S. EliotrnAward are Mario Vargas Llosa (1991),rnCharies Causley (1990), George Garrettrn(1989), Walker Percy (1988), OctaviornPaz (1987), V.S. Naipaul (1986), Eugenernlonesco (1985), Anthony Powellrn(1984), and Jorge Luis Borges (1983).rnJohn Lukacs (1991), Forrest McDonaldrn(1990), Edward O. Wilson (1989), EdwardrnShils (1988), Josef Pieper (1987),rnAndrew Lytic (1986), Robert Nisbetrn(1985), Russell Kirk (1984), and JamesrnBurnham (1983) are previous recipientsrnof the Richard M. Weaver Award.rnDECEMBER 1992/9rnrnrn