Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

Honestly? One of the greatest, most poetic & rage-filled books I've ever read. It grabbed me by the throat from the beginning and rarely let go.

I want to see ALL Walker Evans' photographs.

I suppose there are aspects of this that are ... problematic by today's standards. I wound up not caring, because ... well ...

... god DAMN. This BOOK. The main problem with a book like this is that it makes most other books look like piffle.

This book was as difficult to rate as it was to read, which is to say, quite difficult.

In an effort to deepen my sense of place, I've been trying to read books that are set in Alabama and/or written by Alabama authors. I'd heard this book was a milestone in journalism, that it broke the rules and is still regarded as a dazzling opus for its braiding together of detailed factual reporting, complex prose narrative, and poetic inner reflection. And all that’s true. James Agee, who often places himself as a character in his descriptions of three white Alabama sharecropping families during the Dust Bowl, captures simultaneous feelings of guilt, disgust, compassion, and awe toward impoverished people and their lifestyles, feelings that show more weren’t being publically articulated at the time. Now, any magazine reporter with a byline has license to wax philosophical about the subject of an assignment; but in 1936, Agee was an anomaly. Walker Evans’ photographs further elucidate the baffling dichotomy of toughness and tenderness in sharecropping families.

All of that should earn the book four or five stars.

But it took a blessed eternity to read. And a lot of that reading was slogging through. As important as Let Us Now Praise Famous Men is (and as much as it expanded my knowledge base and deepened my sense of Alabama), on the whole it’s not a super enjoyable read. (At least not for a library-book borrower like me who needs to start and finish a book in one go, not dabble in it a bit at a time.) Ergo, three stars. show less

This is a story so intense and devoted to its subject, it is almost holy writ. It is a sermon preached by the prophet Jeremiah, who preached while weeping in the streets of Jerusalem. The style is florid and ornate, not a stream but a torrent of consciousness. Some sentences are pages long musings on philosophy and writing and life which might make Faulkner smile with approval.

It is an attempt to accurately portray, in words and pictures, the lives of Tenant Farmers in the South in the worst of the Great Depression. He has an obsessive streak for description, he grabs your hand and wants you to feel everything, to get the smell ingrained in you, to look in their tired eyes and see their quiet dignity.

Evans has an equally astonishing show more photoset in the very beginning, but Agee's descriptions make them LIVE, and the descriptions and life and humanity within them unfold.

Agee scorns the label of their work as Art. Very well then, let us call it Life.


"Let us now praise famous men, and our fathers that begat us. The Lord hath wrought great glory by them through his great power from the beginning.
Such as did bear rule in their kingdoms, men renowned for their power, giving counsel by their understanding, and declaring prophecies:
Leaders of the people by their counsels, and by their knowledge of learning meet for the people, wise and eloquent are their instructions:
Such as found out musical tunes, and recited verses in writing:
Rich men furnished with ability, living peaceably in their habitations:
All these were honoured in their generations, and were the glory of their times.
There be of them, that have left a name behind them, that their praises might be reported."

"And some there be, which have no memorial; who are perished, as though they had never been; and are become as though they had never been born; and their children after them.
But these were merciful men, whose righteousness hath not been forgotten.
With their seed shall continually remain a good inheritance, and their children are within the covenant.
Their seed standeth fast, and their children for their sakes.
Their seed shall remain for ever, and their glory shall not be blotted out.
Their bodies are buried in peace; but their name liveth for evermore.
The people will tell of their wisdom, and the congregation will shew forth their praise."

Sirach (Apocrypha) 44: 1-15 show less

James Agee is a famous American novelist. This book however does not belong to his creative oeuvre. Instead, it is a sociological description of abject poverty in the United States during the 1930s in the aftermath of The Great Depression. With photographer Walker Evans Agee visited and documented the lives of poor Americans. The book is the ultimate example of observation and description, providing meticulously detailed description of every aspect of these people's lives. Perhaps the art of this type of writing has been made superfluous as photography and film seem to capture an even more lively impression, although film can barely convey the description of the smell of stale sweat. I assume few people will take the time to read this show more volume. The language is at times poetic. Oddly interspersed with seemingly irrelevant parts, the book is definitely not just a sociological study, but should be read as a type of artistic prose. show less

I did appreciate the parts describing the families, the horrible condition of their poverty, but I've never been a reader to lean towards the poetical. There are chapters where Agee mixes prose and poetry.

The writing has a stream of consciousness feel to it that is sometimes engaging, sometimes tedious. The photographs are beautiful, and Agee portrays the lives of these tenant families with great sensitivity.

I can't honestly give this book a rating, or even much of a review. I found it irritatingly pompous and condescending -- to the readers, that is. Other readers may find it interesting, though.