Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, A Death in the Family, Shorter Fiction
by James Agee
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Three key works by the early twentieth-century author include the 'prophetic journalism' experiment of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, the Pulitzer Prize-winning A Death in the Family, and the novella The Morning Watch.Tags
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This is a collection of Agee short stories, "A Death in the Family" and the monumental essay "Now Let Us Praise Famous Men". The latter essay focuses on the circumstances of three poor sharecropping families in Alabama in 1934. The photos that are included with the essay, taken by Walker Evans, are famous. The essay itself is overwritten, by contemporary standards, but full of moving and poetic detail. For example, Agee likens the straps of the men's bib overalls to the harness of a mule. I was captivated by the meticulous detail Agee shares in documenting simple things like the calendars used to decorate the homes, the women's daily dress made of feed sacks, the way the women use their husbands' cast off shoes. It creates a memorable show more vision of a difficult way of life that, fortunately, has all but disappeared in this country. show less
includes, along with the original walker evans photographs (beautifully reproduced by the way .. i was concerned) 'let us know praise famous men' ... and also 'a death in the family', and some additional short fiction.
the short essay, 'knoxville: summer 1915', that is usually a preface to the posthumously published 'a death in the family' takes my breath away with its carefully observed love and humor and human caring .. family and feelings and the awesomeness of life and death. this is one of my favorite lines of literature, the first line of this essay "We are talking now of summer evenings in Knoxville, Tennessee in the time that I lived there so successfully disguised to myself as a child."
Let that roll around in your noggin for a show more while .. then come to this volume for more. show less
the short essay, 'knoxville: summer 1915', that is usually a preface to the posthumously published 'a death in the family' takes my breath away with its carefully observed love and humor and human caring .. family and feelings and the awesomeness of life and death. this is one of my favorite lines of literature, the first line of this essay "We are talking now of summer evenings in Knoxville, Tennessee in the time that I lived there so successfully disguised to myself as a child."
Let that roll around in your noggin for a show more while .. then come to this volume for more. show less
A Death in the Family: 4.5
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: 3
Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: 3
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42+ Works 7,939 Members
Born in Knoxville, Tennessee, on November 27, 1909 and educated at Harvard, James Agee crowded versatile literary activity into his short and troubled life. In addition to two novels, he wrote short stories, essays, poetry, and screenplays; he worked professionally as a journalist and film critic. Appropriately, he is best remembered for a work show more that combines several genres and literary approaches. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, a documentary report on sharecropper life accompanied by vividly realistic photographs by Walker Evans, has been called "a great Moby Dick of a book" (New York Times Book Review). It may be considered an important precursor of the so-called nonfiction novel that was to gain prominence during the 1960s. The Morning Watch (1954), a novel in the tradition of portraits of artists-to-be, and A Death in the Family, a moving account of domestic life based on the loss of Agee's father belong to more conventional types of fiction. The 1960 dramatization of All the Way Home by Tad Mosel, won a Pulitizer Prize and the New York Drama Critics Circle Award; it was also cited by Life as the "Best American Play of the Season." Agee's work for the screen included his scripts for The African Queen and The Night of the Hunter. Agee on Film (1958-60) consists of a gathering of reviews and comments as well as five scripts. Prior to Laurence Bergreen's well-received 1984 biography of Agee, the principal source of information about his life was Letters of James Agee to Father Flye, a collection of seventy letters written by Agee to his instructor at St. Andrew's School and trusted friend throughout his life. The letters show Agee most often in a reflective, self-condemning mood. The final letters, written from the hospital where he was battling daily heart attacks, are touching, as are his sad reflections on the work he yet wanted to do. Agee died in New York of a heart attack on May 16, 1955. He was posthumously awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 1957 for A Death in the Family. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Series
Belongs to Publisher Series
Library of America (159)
Work Relationships
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, A Death in the Family, Shorter Fiction
- Original publication date
- 2005-09-22
- Publisher's editor
- Sragow, Michael
- Disambiguation notice
- This is an omnibus unique to the Library of America; therefore, all CK facts apply to this publication only.
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, General Fiction
- DDC/MDS
- 818.5209 — Literature & rhetoric American literature in English American miscellaneous writings in English 20th Century 1900-1945 Biography
- LCC
- PS3501 .G35 .A6 — Language and Literature American literature American literature Individual authors 1900-1960
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 354
- Popularity
- 89,061
- Reviews
- 3
- Rating
- (4.29)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper
- ISBNs
- 1
- ASINs
- 1
