Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941) - James Agee Audiobook

Written by James Agee
Read by Walker Evans
Format: MP3
Bitrate: 64 Kbps
Unabridged

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: Three Tenant Families

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing
Release date: March 29, 2016
Duration: 15:13:57

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.

In the summer of 1936, James Agee and Walker Evans set out on assignment 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 Let Us Now Praise Famous Men was first published in 1941 to enormous critical acclaim. This unsparing record of place, of the people who shaped the land, and the rhythm of their lives is intensely moving and unrelentingly honest, and today—recognized by the New York Public Library as one of the most influential books of the twentieth century—it stands as a poetic tract of its time.

As noted above, the narrative is sheer poetry in its rhythm and imagery. It is a must read for that alone. An historic caution, language and slang are indicative of the time.

With a sixty-four-page photographic prologue featuring archival reproductions of Evans’s classic images, this book offers listeners a window into a remarkable slice of American history.