{"product_id":"let-us-now-praise-famous-men-an-annotated-edition-of-the-james-agee-walker-evans-classic-with-supplementary-manuscripts-9781621900306","title":"Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: An Annotated Edition of the James Agee-Walker Evans Classic, with Supplementary Manuscripts","description":"In the summer of 1936, writer James Agee and photographer Walker Evans, on assignment\u003cbr\u003efor \u003ci\u003eFortune\u003c\/i\u003e magazine, went to central Alabama to document the lives of three white\u003cbr\u003esharecropper families. Agee's editors killed the article, and after a torturous five-year\u003cbr\u003estruggle to do artistic justice to the material, the author finally published it in book form\u003cbr\u003eas \u003ci\u003eLet Us Now Praise Famous Men\u003c\/i\u003e, only to see it sink with barely a ripple. The posthumous\u003cbr\u003erevival of Agee's literary fortunes led to the work's reissue in 1960, its adoption as an unofficial\u003cbr\u003ebible by civil rights workers, and its enshrinement as an American classic. It has\u003cbr\u003eremained in print ever since. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn this, the third volume in The Works of James Agee series, editor Hugh Davis not\u003cbr\u003eonly offers a thoroughly annotated edition of the Agee-Evans masterpiece, featuring invaluable\u003cbr\u003eexplanatory notes as well as notes comparing the published work to extant copies of the\u003cbr\u003eoriginal manuscript, but also supplements that text with a wealth of additional material: an\u003cbr\u003einsightful critical essay, variant versions of key sections, unused chapters, correspondence\u003cbr\u003ebetween Agee and others involved in the book's publication (notably Houghton Mifflin editor\u003cbr\u003eRobert Linscott), generous selections from the author's notebooks, and much more. This\u003cbr\u003evolume opens with the original gallery of Evans's thirty-one photographs from the 1941\u003cbr\u003eedition and also includes, as part of the supplementary material, the expanded gallery of\u003cbr\u003esixty-two photos that appeared in the 1960 edition. Here as well is the text of the rejected\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eFortune\u003c\/i\u003e article, \"Cotton Tenants,\" fully annotated for the first time. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eInformed by Agee's love of his subjects, his acute observational skills, and his poetic, \u003cbr\u003epassionate, raging voice--not to mention the stark artistry of Evan's black and white photography\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLet Us Now Praise Famous Men\u003c\/i\u003e is a book that to this day defies easy classification.\u003cbr\u003eThis volume recaptures the aesthetic impact of the original, corrects errors from earlier\u003cbr\u003eeditions, and, most important, illuminates the difficult process that spawned its creation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHugh Davis is an associate professor of English at Piedmont College in Demorest, Georgia. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Making of James Agee\u003c\/i\u003e and coeditor, with Michael A. Lofaro, of \u003ci\u003eJames Agee Rediscovered: The Journals of \u003c\/i\u003eLet Us Now Praise Famous Men \u003ci\u003eand Other New Manuscripts\u003c\/i\u003e, both published by the University of Tennessee Press. \u003cbr\u003e James Agee (1909-1955) was an American writer in mutliple genres. As a journalist, he pioneered serious film criticism. As a novelist, he won a Pulitzer Prize for his posthumously published \u003ci\u003eA Death in the Family\u003c\/i\u003e. As a screenwriter, he worked on revered films \u003ci\u003eThe African Queen \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Night of the Hunter\u003c\/i\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e Walker Evans (1903-1975) was a photographer, most famously for the Farm Security Administration, for whom he worked from 1935 until 1938. His works include \u003ci\u003eAmerican Photographs\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eLet Us Now Praise Famous Men\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eMany Are Called\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Tennessee Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52179062063378,"sku":"9781621900306","price":99.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_ef9213c9-2827-4572-995b-6cbf32b93ed9.jpg?v=1775635019","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/let-us-now-praise-famous-men-an-annotated-edition-of-the-james-agee-walker-evans-classic-with-supplementary-manuscripts-9781621900306","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}