Editing Allen Tate (section)

===1950s===
In 1950, Tate converted to Roman Catholicism.<ref>Henry L. Carrigan, Jr., "Three Catholic Writers of the South", ''The Christian Century'', February 26, 1986, pp. 216–17.</ref> His godfather was the philosopher [[Jacques Maritain]], who had been his friend at Princeton for several years.   Gordon had joined the Church in 1947.  Following the Tates into the Church later were their daughter and son-in-law, Nancy and Percy Wood; their Tennessee friends [[Brainard Cheney]] and his wife [[Frances Neel Cheney|Frances]]; and their friend [[George Frederick Morgan]], Tate's former Princeton student and editor of the ''[[The Hudson Review|Hudson Review]].'' He had a significant correspondence with Catholic nun, literary critic and poet [[M. Bernetta Quinn]].<ref name=":12">{{Cite book |last=Ripatrazone |first=Nick |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctv2xkjp9p?turn_away=true |title=The Habit of Poetry: The Literary Lives of Nuns in Mid-century America |date=2023 |publisher=1517 Media |isbn=978-1-5064-7112-9 |chapter=Sister Mary Bernetta Quinn: Woman of Letters |doi=10.2307/j.ctv2xkjp9p.7}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |title=Mary Bernetta Quinn Papers, 1937-1998 |url=https://finding-aids.lib.unc.edu/04307/ |access-date= |website=Wilson Special Collections Library of UNC-Chapel Hill}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Sister Mary Bernetta Quinn papers |url=https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/11/resources/1438 |url-status= |access-date= |website=Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University}}</ref>

In 1951, six weeks after his baptism, Tate, writing "as a Catholic," published a letter in ''[[The New York Times]]'' objecting to [[Francis Spellman|Cardinal Francis Spellman]]'s banning the Italian film ''[[L'Amore (film)#Episode two: The Miracle|The Miracle]]''.  Maritain told him, "Only you would have had the nerve to fight Spellman."  The Supreme Court in 1952 struck down New York State's ban of ''The Miracle'', Justice [[Felix Frankfurter]] citing Tate's letter to the ''New York Times''.

When Warren resigned from the [[University of Minnesota]] to go to Yale in 1951, the university offered the position to Tate.  Tate was one of six U.S. delegates in 1952, including [[William Faulkner]], [[Katherine Anne Porter]], and [[W. H. Auden]], to the [[Congress for Cultural Freedom]] in Paris.  Later in 1952, the U.S. State Department sent Tate to the [[UNESCO]] Conference on the Arts in Venice; in Rome he had an audience with [[Pope Pius XII]].  He was a [[Fulbright Program|Fulbright Lecturer]] in Rome, 1953–54, and was the first Writer in Residence at the American Academy there. Tate was awarded honorary Litt. D. degrees by [[Coe College]] (1955) and [[Colgate University]] (1956).  
   
Tate was awarded the [[Bollingen Prize]] for Poetry for 1956. During the summers he taught at Harvard University and [[Brandeis University]]. In 1958 he was awarded the Christian Culture Gold Medal in Canada "as an outstanding lay exponent of Christian ideals."  He was a [[Fulbright Lecturer]] at the University of Oxford and the [[University of Leeds]], 1958–59.

In 1959, Gordon was granted a divorce from Tate in Minneapolis on grounds of desertion. Tate four days later married the poet [[Isabella Gardner (poet)|Isabella Gardner]] (1915–1981) in [[Wellfleet, Massachusetts]]. His friend [[Francis Biddle]], the attorney general under [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|President Franklin Roosevelt]], was best man. In Minneapolis Tate had been living in the Oak Grove Hotel; Gardner bought and furnished a house. Her two children from two previous husbands lived with them from time to time.

"Homage to Allen Tate," honoring his 60th birthday, was published in the Autumn 1959 ''Sewanee Review'', including contributions by Ransom, Lytle, Cowley, Eliot, Blackmur, Porter, Van Doren, Davidson, and Lowell.