James Agee Rediscovered: The Journals for 'Let Us Now Praise Famous Men' and Other New Manuscripts

Novelist, journalist, film critic, poet, and activist James Agee (1909-1955) produced an impressive array of literary works spanning three decades. His poems, novels, essays, works of criticism, and screenplays gave profound social insights into the Depression-ridden 1930s and war-torn 1940s, and scholars study and debate his work to this day. Agee, a Tennessee native, is arguably the most important literary figure from the state. James Agee Rediscovered, edited by Michael A. Lofaro and Hugh Davis, gives a new and unique perspective on this prolific writer. With this book, the editors have put together an untarnished and unfettered collection of previously unpublished manuscripts of one of America's most intriguing authors. Featuring various drafts and fragments of Agee's manuscripts from the University of Tennessee Collections Library, the Ransom Center at the University of Texas, and the James Agee Trust, this book reveals the inner thoughts and creative sensibilities of an eclectic writer. James Agee Rediscovered consists of journal entries, drafts of original material, and heretofore undiscovered literary works. Lofaro and Davis compiled this collection with a minimum of editorial intrusion. The result is an untainted glimpse of Agee at his creative best. Using his masterwork Let Us Now Praise Famous Men as its focal point, the collection covers all aspects of Agee's literary career. Readers will discover Agee's thoughts on topics ranging from love to the art of protest, from Charlie Chaplin to race relations. James Agee Rediscovered is a major addition to the field of literary biography, Devotees of Agee, as well the literary curious, will be fascinated by this raw look at anmajor literary talent.