James Agee (1909–1955)
Teoksen A Death in the Family tekijä
About the Author
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. näytä lisää Appropriately, he is best remembered for a work 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) näytä vähemmän
Image credit: www.ageefilms.org
Tekijän teokset
Partisan Review No. 2, March-April, 1951 2 kappaletta
James Agee Rediscovered: The Journals for 'Let Us Now Praise Famous Men' and Other New Manuscripts (2005) 2 kappaletta
Film: An Anthology 1 kappale
The Collected Short Prose of James Agee. Edited and with a Memoir by Robert Fitzgerald (1968) 1 kappale
James Agee: Let Us Now Praise Famous Men / a Death in the Family / Shorter Fiction (Loa #159) 1 kappale
Αυτοί που έμειναν 1 kappale
Associated Works
American Poetry: The Twentieth Century, Volume Two: E. E. Cummings to May Swenson (2000) — Avustaja — 395 kappaletta
You've Got to Read This: Contemporary American Writers Introduce Stories that Held Them in Awe (1994) — Avustaja — 376 kappaletta
The Lincoln Anthology: Great Writers on His Life and Legacy from 1860 to Now (2008) — Avustaja — 150 kappaletta
The Roads from Bethlehem: Christmas Literature from Writers Ancient and Modern (1993) — Avustaja — 28 kappaletta
Firsts: 100 Years of Yale Younger Poets (Yale Series of Younger Poets) (2019) — Avustaja — 11 kappaletta
Merkitty avainsanalla
Yleistieto
- Kanoninen nimi
- Agee, James
- Virallinen nimi
- Agee, James Rufus
- Syntymäaika
- 1909-11-27
- Kuolinaika
- 1955-05-16
- Hautapaikka
- Agee Family Farm, Hillsdale, New York, USA
- Sukupuoli
- male
- Kansalaisuus
- USA
- Syntymäpaikka
- Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
- Kuolinpaikka
- New York, New York, USA
- Kuolinsyy
- heart attack
- Asuinpaikat
- Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
Santa Barbara, California, USA - Koulutus
- Harvard University (BA|1932)
- Ammatit
- screenwriter
journalist
film critic
novelist
poet - Suhteet
- Levitt, Helen (friend)
- Organisaatiot
- The Nation
Fortune
Time - Palkinnot ja kunnianosoitukset
- American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award (Literature ∙ 1949)
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1958)
Jäseniä
Kirja-arvosteluja
Letters of James Agee to Father Flye Tekijä: James Agee
For anyone who likes to read letters, this collection is fantastic and fascinating.
PERMIT ME VOYAGE (1934) | read 2023-02
Constitutes Part I in this edition, Agee's first book. Comments on the jacket, flyleaf, and Robert Fitzgerald's introduction suggest Agee's reputation as contrarian and the waves he made with journalism and film writing sparked this reprint, taking advantage of the reflected light of his more popular works. I knew Agee was linked to films I admired, without being able to cite them from memory, but haven't read anything. A bit of online reading indicate Agee wasn't overly popular in his lifetime; this collection was first published in 1970, when his literary reputation (enhanced especially by his posthumous Pulitzer in Literature) was widely recognised.
My initial impression (skipping the Intro so as to avoid any spoilers): pretentious or overly earnest, with glimpses of creativity similar to my impression of Yvor Winter. The "essay" (a prose poem?) styled as Dedication is an interesting idea and a case in point. There are many lines and phrases that resonate, but few complete poems that land solidly.
Agee strikes me as someone I'd benefit most from having someone guide me through his work, an admirer familiar with his writing in all these genres, and could point out interesting anecdotes and link work relevant to my interests. I could discover the same on my own, of course, but it will take me much longer a time, and likely include works I don't find compelling. Not persuaded I have the necessary motivation for that, frankly.
//
To be read:
Part II: LATER POEMS (1933-1950)
Part III: JOHN CARTER (1932-1936)
Part IV: VERSE (1929-1955)… (lisätietoja)
Constitutes Part I in this edition, Agee's first book. Comments on the jacket, flyleaf, and Robert Fitzgerald's introduction suggest Agee's reputation as contrarian and the waves he made with journalism and film writing sparked this reprint, taking advantage of the reflected light of his more popular works. I knew Agee was linked to films I admired, without being able to cite them from memory, but haven't read anything. A bit of online reading indicate Agee wasn't overly popular in his lifetime; this collection was first published in 1970, when his literary reputation (enhanced especially by his posthumous Pulitzer in Literature) was widely recognised.
My initial impression (skipping the Intro so as to avoid any spoilers): pretentious or overly earnest, with glimpses of creativity similar to my impression of Yvor Winter. The "essay" (a prose poem?) styled as Dedication is an interesting idea and a case in point. There are many lines and phrases that resonate, but few complete poems that land solidly.
Agee strikes me as someone I'd benefit most from having someone guide me through his work, an admirer familiar with his writing in all these genres, and could point out interesting anecdotes and link work relevant to my interests. I could discover the same on my own, of course, but it will take me much longer a time, and likely include works I don't find compelling. Not persuaded I have the necessary motivation for that, frankly.
//
To be read:
Part II: LATER POEMS (1933-1950)
Part III: JOHN CARTER (1932-1936)
Part IV: VERSE (1929-1955)… (lisätietoja)
This was on the People's version of the Modern Library List of best fiction. Published posthumously, it wasn't really edited. A close look at something one usually looks away from. Much of it is brilliant.
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