ABSTRACT
Born in Asheville, North Carolina, in 1910, Richard Malcolm Weaver was raised in Lexington, Kentucky. Elected to Phi Beta Kappa, Weaver graduated from the University of Kentucky in 1932. Weaver obtained his doctorate in English from Louisiana State University in 1943. His dissertation, "The Confederate South, 1965-1910: A Study in the Survival of a Mind and Culture," was directed by Cleanth Brooks, who was assisted by, among others, Robert Penn Warren. In seeking a philosophy sustaining a recommendation of life, Weaver turned to those venerable traditions of Western thought that spoke in terms of meaning, purpose and truth–in terms of affirmation: He turned to the Platonic-Christian heritage and its manifestation in the American South. He responded by articulating a conservatism of hope and affirmation–a firm foundation for a founding father to have laid.
