With its signature photographs reshot from archival negatives, an elegant new edition of the "most realistic and most important moral effort of our American generation" (Lionel Trilling) Published nearly sixty years ago, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men stands as an undisputed masterpiece of the twentieth century, taking its place alongside works by Henry David Thoreau, Herman Melville, and Walt Whitman. In a stunning blend of prose and images, this classic offers at once an unforgettable portrait of three tenant families in the Deep South and a larger meditation on human dignity and the American soul. 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. There they lived with three different families for a month; the result of their stay was an extraordinary collaboration, an unsparing record of place, the people who shaped the land, and the rhythm of their lives. Upon its first publication, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men was called intensely moving, unrelentingly honest. It described a mode of life — and rural poverty — that was unthinkably remote and tragic to most Americans, and yet for Agee and Evans, only extreme realism could serve to make the world fully aware of such circumstances. Rejected by Fortune as too unwieldy, it was published for the first time in book form in 1941. Today it stands as a poetic tract for its time, a haunting search for the human and religious meaning in the lives of true Southern heroes: in their waking, sleeping, eating; their work; their houses and children; and their endurance. With an elegant design and a sixty-four-page photographic prologue of Evans's classic images, reshot from archival negatives, the new edition reintroduces the legendary author and photographer to a new generation. Both an invaluable part of the American heritage and a graceful tribute to the vibrant souls whose stories live in these pages, this book has profoundly changed our culture and our consciousness — and will continue to inspire for generations to come.

The "most realistic and most important moral effort of our American generation." - Lionel Trilling

'James Agee (1909-1955) was a poet, screenwriter, and journalist who won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel A DEATH IN THE FAMILY.Walker Evans (1903-1976) is best known for his striking Depression-era photographs. Born in St. Louis, he began his photographic career at twenty-five. He served as an editor for both Fortune and Time and was a professor of graphic arts at Yale. His other books include American Photographs and Message from the Interior.'

verses 4 preamble 5 all over alabama 15 (On the Porch: 1 17 July 1936 late sunday morning 23 at the forks 29 near a church 35 Part One: A Country Letter 43 Colon 85 Part Two: Some Findings and Comments 99 money 101 shelter 107 (On the Porch: 2 195 clothing 225 education 253 work 279 Intermission: Conversation in the Lobby 309 Part Three: Inductions 317 shady grove alabama 381 two images 389 title statement 391 Notes and Appendices 395 (On the Porch: 3 407