Robert Young Drake (1930-2001)

Robert Young Drake, Jr. was born in Ripley, Tennessee on October 20, 1930. He attended Vanderbilt University, receiving his B.A. in 1952 and M.A. in 1953, and Yale, receiving another M.A. in 1954 and his Ph.D. in 1955.

Drake taught at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor (1955-58), at Northwestern University (1958-61), at the University of Texas (1961-65), and at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville (1965-1999). He wrote numerous short stories and non-fiction, as well as memoirs of West Tennessee during the first half of the twentieth century. On June 30, 2001, Drake passed away at his home in Milan, Tennessee.