The Fugitives were a group of Vanderbilt writers, poets, and philosophers founded just after World War I by Giles County natives Donald Davidson and John Crowe Ransom. What began as a group of well-educated men getting together to argue about poetry quickly became a group championing agrarian traditions and self-reliance, while warning against large scale, de-personalized industry. Ransom and Davidson were colleagues of Felix Massey, a Vanderbilt graduate who led the Massey School for Boys and later became Dean at the University of Tennessee. Many of the original Fugitives went on to achieve great acclaim and influence, including Ransom, who chaired the literary department at Kenyon and is considered the greatest native Tennessee poet, Robert Penn Warren, who won the Pulitzer Prize for “All the Kings Men”, Andrew Lytle who mentored many at The University of the South (Sewanee), and Jesse and Ridley Wills prominent Nashvillians. The mission of Fugitives Whiskey is to embrace the Fugitives ideals of honoring our agriculture and craftsmanship by making small batches of extraordinary whiskey from locally grown grain. Whiskey, throughout American history, is simply good farming, and that's a tradition Fugitives Whiskey intends to continue by honoring the Tennessee Farmer with a genuine Tennessee agricultural whiskey made with the greatest care and methods. Simply put, there are no shortcuts in excellence. You work hard to be able to enjoy a fine whiskey, your whiskey should be authentic and the best.
