James Agee

The classic American novel—winner of the 1958 Pulitzer Prize —now re-published for the 100th anniversary of James Agee ’ s birthOne of Time ’s All-Time 100 Best NovelsA Penguin ClassicPublished in 1957, two years after its author's death at the age of forty-five, A Death in the Family remains a near-perfect work of art, an autobiographical novel that contains one of the most evocative depictions of loss and grief ever written. As Jay Follet hurries back to his home in Knoxville, Tennessee, he is killed in a car accident—a tragedy that destroys not only a life, but also the domestic happiness and contentment of a young family. A novel of great courage, lyric force, and powerful emotion, A Death in the Family is a masterpiece of American literature.

In the summer of 1936, Agee and Evans set out on assignement for Fortune magazine to explore the daily lives of sharecroppers in the South. Their journey would prove an extraordinary collaboration and a watershed literary event when in 1941 Let Us Now Praise Famous Men was first published to enourmous critical acclaim. This unspairing record of place, of the people who shaped the land, and of the rhythm of their lives today stands as one of the most influential books of the twentieth century.

A re-discovered masterpiece of reporting by a literary icon and a celebrated photographerIn 1941, James Agee and Walker Evans published Let Us Now Praise Famous Men , a four-hundred-page prose symphony about three tenant farming families in Hale County, Alabama at the height of the Great Depression. The book shattered journalistic and literary conventions. Critic Lionel Trilling called it the “most realistic and most important moral effort of our American generation.”The origins of Agee and Evan's famous collaboration date back to an assignment for Fortune magazine, which sent them to Alabama in the summer of 1936 to report a story that was never published. Some have assumed that Fortune 's editors shelved the story because of the unconventional style that marked Let Us Now Praise Famous Men , and for years the original report was lost.But fifty years after Agee’s death, a trove of his manuscripts turned out to include a typescript labeled “Cotton Tenants.” Once examined, the pages made it clear that Agee had in fact written a masterly, 30,000-word report for Fortune .Published here for the first time, and accompanied by thirty of Walker Evans’s historic photos, Cotton Tenants is an eloquent report of three families struggling through desperate times. Indeed, Agee’s dispatch remains relevant as one of the most honest explorations of poverty in America ever attempted and as a foundational document of long-form reporting. As the novelist Adam Haslett writes in an introduction, it is “a poet’s brief for the prosecution of economic and social injustice.”Co-Published with The Baffler magazine

"In my opinion, [Agee's] column is the most remarkable regular event in American journalism today."--W. H. AudenJames Agee was passionately involved with the movies throughout his life. A master of both fiction and nonfiction, he wrote about film in clean, smart prose as the reviewer for Time magazine and as a columnist for The Nation. Agee was particularly perceptive about the work of his friend John Huston and recognized the artistic merit of certain B films such as The Curse of the Cat People and other movies produced by Val Lewton.

A passionate literary innovator, eloquent in language and uncompromising in his social observation and his pursuit of emotional truth, James Agee (1909––1955) excelled as novelist, critic, journalist, and screenwriter. In his brief, often turbulent life, he left enduring evidence of his unwavering intensity, observant eye, and sometimes savage wit.This Library of America volume collects his fiction along with his extraordinary experiment in what might be called prophetic journalism, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941), a collaboration with photographer Walker Evans that began as an assignment from Fortune magazine to report on the lives of Alabama sharecroppers, and that expanded into a vast and unique mix of reporting, poetic meditation, and anguished self-revelation that Agee described as “an effort in human actuality.” A 64-page photo insert reproduces Evans’s now-iconic photographs from the expanded 1960 edition.A Death in the Family, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that he worked on for over a decade and that was published posthumously in 1957, recreates in stunningly evocative prose Agee’s childhood in Knoxville, Tennessee, and the upheaval his family experienced after his father’s death in a car accident when Agee was six years old. A whole world, with its sensory vividness and social constraints, comes to life in this child’s-eye view of a few catastrophic days. It is presented here for the first time in a text with corrections based on Agee’s manuscripts at the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center.This volume also includes The Morning Watch (1951), an autobiographical novella that reflects Agee’s deep involvement with religious questions, and three short stories: “Death in the Desert,” “They That Sow in Sorrow Shall Not Reap,” and the remarkable allegory “A Mother’s Tale.”

James Agee, whose death at the age of 45 cut short a brilliant career in American letters, is best known to millions of readers for his posthumous novel, A Death in the Family.In The Morning Watch, his only other published novel, the extraordinary power of language and the themes that so moved readers of A Death in the Family may already be seen. In prose of astonishing clarity and intensity, Agee captured the portrait of an appealing and very real boy - serious, pitiable, funny - at the moment of his initiation into a feared yet fascinating world.

Agee, James

James Agee brought to bear all his moral energy, slashing wit, and boundless curiosity in the criticism and journalism that established him as one of the commanding literary voices of America at mid-century. In 1944 W. H. Auden called Agee's film reviews for The Nation "the most remarkable regular event in American journalism today." Those columns, along with much of the movie criticism that Agee wrote for Time through most of the 1940s, were collected posthumously in Agee on Film: Reviews and Comments, undoubtedly the most influential writings on film by an American.Whether reviewing a Judy Garland musical or a wartime documentary, assessing the impact of Italian neorealism or railing against the compromises in a Hollywood adaptation of Hemingway, Agee always wrote of movies as a pervasive, profoundly significant part of modern life, a new art whose classics (Chaplin, Dovzhenko, Vigo) he revered and whose betrayal in the interests of commerce or propaganda he often deplored. If his frequent disappointments could be registered in acid tones, his enthusiasms were expressed with passionate eloquence. This Library of America volume supplements the classic pieces from Agee on Film with previously uncollected writings on Ingrid Bergman, the Marx Brothers, Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat, Vittorio De Sica's Shoeshine, and a wealth of other cinematic subjects.Agee's own work as a screenwriter is represented by his script for Charles Laughton's unique and haunting masterpiece of Southern gothic, The Night of the Hunter, adapted from the novel by Davis Grubb. This collection also includes examples of Agee's masterfully probing reporting for Fortune — on subjects as diverse as the Tennessee Valley Authority, commercial orchids, and cockfighting — and a sampling of his literary reviews, among them appreciations of William Faulkner, Virginia Woolf, S. J. Perelman, and William Carlos Williams.

In 1939, James Agee (1909-55) wrote a 10,000-word piece about Brooklyn for Fortune magazine. The editors shelved the article because of "creative differences"; apparently, Agee's finely detailed rhapsody didn't fit the editors' designs for a New York City special issue. In any case, it remained unpublished until 1968, when it appeared with the somewhat incongruous title Southeast of the Island. With this edition, a new generation of readers will be introduced to perhaps the finest prose description of Brooklyn, that singular borough.

minor wear to wrapper only previous owners name to endpapers

Perigee trade paperback, 1983, 1st printing, for this price and single shipping cost includes vol 1 and vol 2, matched set, unread but has been opened for review, no marks, no writing, close to new condition but for slight foxing on top edge and very slight toning to inside covers, a beautiful 2 volume set

Better known for writing in a variety of other genres, James Agee always thought of himself as essentially a poet. Winner of the Yale Younger Poets competition in 1934 for Permit Me Voyage , Agee was, in the words of editor Andrew Hudgins, "as restless in his poetry as he was later in his prose, exhibiting a variety . . . that we expect from the protean mind that excelled in so many different kinds of writing." Ranging from intense religious sonnets to lyrics for musical comedy, Agee?s verse takes us into the heart of his unique genius, what Robert Fitzgerald called his "sense of being . . . a raging awareness of the sensory field in depth and in detail."About the American Poets ProjectElegantly designed in compact editions, printed on acid-free paper, and textually authoritative, the American Poets Project makes available the full range of the American poetic accomplishment, selected and introduced by today’s most discerning poets and critics.

Poet, film critic, screenwriter, and novelist James Agee is best known for his autobiographical Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, A Death in the Family. Yet the journalistic writings of this Knoxville, Tennessee, native established him as an equal of writers such as Ernest Hemingway and Stephen Crane.James Agee: Selected Journalism is a collection of his articles published from 1933 to 1947 by Time and Fortune, two of the era's most influential magazines. This edition of the book includes two new articles from Agee's school years and a new introduction by editor Paul Ashdown that places Agee's journalistic work in the context of his entire career.Agee's readers have often felt that his preoccupation with journalism prevented him from achieving a reputation as a great modern writer. However, Agee valued his articles highly, and so did many influential critics. His magazine work led to Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, a challenge to the journalism profession. The selections in this volume offer grounds for a fuller reinterpretation of Agee's career.The articles reproduced here chronicle life at home and abroad during the Depression and the war-torn 1940s. The range of topics is vast—from cockfighting and the racing season at Saratoga, to the devastation of postwar France and the passing of the Roman aristocracy, to the corporatization of a small orchid nursery and the way in which a variety of Americans experienced the death of President Roosevelt. In his journalistic pieces Agee shows a remarkable prescience. For example, he was early to realize the tremendous significance of the atom bomb and the effect of the Tennessee Valley Authority on the mountain regions.In the nineteen essays in this volume, Agee demonstrates his characteristic sensitivity and awareness and provides a keen insight into the culture of this turbulent era.

Prose & Poetry, Memoirs, English Literature, James Agee, Literary Studies

His first book of poetry, issued as part of the Yale Series of Younger Poets. Foreword by Archibald MacLeish.

A parable about a family of cows which poses the problem of resistance to truth, the risks of individuality versus the pressure to conform, and the tensions between generations.

Standing From Warrior to Civilian was created for Talking Service, the Great Books Foundation’s initiative to develop reading and discussion programs for veterans, as well as their families and friends. Standing Down selections, from Homer's Iliad to personal accounts of members of the service who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Fiction, nonfiction, poetry, essays, and memoirs that speak to past experiences, concerns, and aspirations of those who have served in the military and made the often- difficult transition back into civilian life

includes: Noa Noa, African Queen, Night of the Hunter, Bride Comes to Yellow Sky and Blue Hotel; Five Film Plays

In 1949, the film critic James Agee published his influential essay “Comedy's Greatest Era,” in which he recounts the golden years of silent comedy and proclaims that the genre’s “four most eminent masters” were Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd, and Harry Langdon

Bergman, Fellinin, Orson Welles, Truffaut, Godard... The films and the men who made cinema today's most dynamic art form - reviewed here by 33 of the top critics and scholars of modern film art. Illustrated.

Book by Agee, James, Kramer, Victor A.

Eine Atombombe explodiert über New York. Die entsetzlichen Auswirkungen hat niemand vorhergesehen: Kein menschliches Wesen hat überlebt. Mit Ausnahme des Tramp. Durch die menschenleere Wüstenei eines post-apokalyptischen New York wankt Charlie Chaplin in seiner Paraderolle als Vagabund, dem nur sein tiefschwarzer Humor geblieben ist. Und er stößt auf weitere Überlebende: eine junge Frau, ein Neugeborenes – und ein Grüppchen Wissenschaftler, die sich inmitten der Ruinen eine Basis für ihre neue Weltordnung eingerichtet haben…1947 wendet sich James Agee an den von ihm hoch verehrten Charlie Chaplin mit diesem Filmprojekt. Eine dunkle, hochkomplexe und dichte Geschichte, packend, bitter und bildgeschwängert. So drastisch wie unbeirrt manifestieren sich darin kollektive Ängste und der Wille zur ätzenden politischen Parodie gegen den antikommunistischen Furor der McCarthy-Ära, dem Chaplin selbst ausgesetzt war. Nie realisiert und erst vor kurzem wiederentdeckt, entfaltet sich ein erstaunlicher Text auf der Schwelle zwischen Film und Literatur, zwischen Drehbuch, poetischer Novelle und politischer Satire.

L’écrivain et journaliste James Agee écrivit Le Vagabond d'un Nouveau Monde pour Chaplin en 1947, très marqué par l’explosion d’Hiroshima. Le film ne se fit pas, mais les deux hommes devinrent amis et Agee fut consultant sur Les Feux de la Rampe (1952).Après l’explosion nucléaire qui a ravagé New York, deux communautés se forment sur les ruines du monde, l’une autour du Vagabond, qui valorise l’individu et l’instinct, l’autre autour d’un groupe de Scientifiques, qui vit selon la Raison pure.Le Vagabond d'un Nouveau Monde est bien davantage qu’un scénario. Il s’agit d’un véritable chef-d’œuvre littéraire : lyrique, foisonnant, d’une extraordinaire précision descriptive. Parsemé de commentaires et d’adresses à Chaplin, ce texte constitue également un « work in progress » fascinant et un bouleversant journal intime traitant du rapport qu’entretenait Agee avec le cinéaste et la figure de Charlot.

Durante la madrugada de un Viernes Santo, Richard, un niño de doce años, se halla en vela en la penumbra de la capilla de su internado. En la atmósfera pesada del recogimiento fluyen por su cabeza las impresiones que tiene de sus compañeros y sus vivencias. Las cuales se entremezclan con sus meditaciones e interrogantes sobre cuestiones que considera trascendentales en su adolescente existencia, como la culpa, el pecado, el arrepentimiento, la relación con Dios, los entresijos de la conciencia, la confesión, lo sagrado, los actos impuros..., el peso de la vida y, sobre todo, el de la muerte. Vigilia es una novela que al igual que Una muerte en la familia, también publicada en Alianza Literaria, tiene una enorme carga autobiográfica. El internado es similar al que acogió al propio James Agee tras la muerte de su padre. Una pérdida que siempre le mortificó, como a los niños protagonistas de sus novelas, que también tienen en común con el autor la profunda educación cristiana recibida. Vigilia es una novela de iniciación, en la línea joyceana de su admirada Retrato del artista adolescente. Con un lenguaje descriptivo de una inusual belleza, cargado de símbolos oníricos, James Agee a través de sus obsesiones vitales nos brinda una obra de madurez.

A diverse collection of outstanding writing on various aspects of film published from 1929 to 1957.

American Literature, Literary Studies, Anthology