Editing Randall Jarrell (section)

===Youth and education===
Jarrell was a native of [[Nashville, Tennessee]]. He attended [[Hume-Fogg High School]] where he "practiced tennis, starred in some school plays, and began his career as a critic with satirical essays in a school magazine."<ref name="Burt">Burt, Stephen. ''Randall Jarrell and His Age''. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002.</ref> He received his B.A. from [[Vanderbilt University]] in 1935. While at Vanderbilt, he edited the student humor magazine ''The Masquerader'', was captain of the tennis team, made [[Phi Beta Kappa]] and graduated ''[[magna cum laude]]''. He studied there under [[Robert Penn Warren]], who first published Jarrell's criticism; [[Allen Tate]], who first published Jarrell's poetry; and [[John Crowe Ransom]], who gave Jarrell his first teaching job as a Freshman Composition instructor at [[Kenyon College]] in [[Gambier, Ohio]]. Although all of these Vanderbilt tutors were  involved with the conservative [[Southern Agrarians|Southern Agrarian movement]], Jarrell did not become a supporter of the Agrarians himself. According to [[Stephanie Burt]], "Jarrell&mdash;a devotee of [[Karl Marx|Marx]] and [[W.H. Auden|Auden]]&mdash; embraced his teachers' literary stances while rejecting their politics."<ref name="Burt"/> He also completed his Master's degree in English at Vanderbilt in 1937, beginning his thesis on [[A. E. Housman]] (which he completed in 1939).

When Ransom left Vanderbilt for Kenyon College in Ohio that same year, a number of his loyal students, including Jarrell, followed him to Kenyon. Jarrell taught English at Kenyon for two years, coached [[tennis]], and served as the resident faculty member in an undergraduate dormitory that housed future writers [[Robie Macauley]], [[Peter Matthew Hillsman Taylor|Peter Taylor]],<ref>{{cite journal | url=https://www.jstor.org/pss/4337918 | jstor=4337918 | title=Peter Taylor: The Undergraduate Years at Kenyon | last1=McAlexander | first1=Hubert H. | journal=The Kenyon Review | date=1999 | volume=21 | issue=3/4 | pages=43–57 }}</ref> and poet [[Robert Lowell]]. Lowell and Jarrell remained good friends and peers until Jarrell's death. According to Lowell biographer [[Paul Mariani]], "Jarrell was the first person of [Lowell's] own generation [whom he] genuinely held in awe" due to Jarrell's brilliance and confidence even at the age of 23.<ref>Mariani, Paul. ''Lost Puritan: A Life of Robert Lowell''. New York: Norton, 1994.</ref>