James Agee
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Bibliography
Notes
"Agee has become the literary intellectual's folk-hero equivalent of James Dean." --Webster Schott in The New York Times Book Review.
"I think as a critic he suffered from the fact that he really wanted to be a creator. His criticism, I think, is extremely good. It's good because he has a broad cultural background, he's got great style, he can say things in two sentences, he has intelligence, wit, and precision; and also he really does have a sense of values and he doesn't give them up. But as a person who wanted to be a creator, he kept seeing in movies all kinds of things that really weren't there ... Agee used to find some beauties in these films, some of which I don't think were there at all, but if he had been making them, they would have been ... He took the appearance for the deed. I think the main trouble with his criticism is that it often tends to be much too uncritical." --Dwight Macdonald ("Agee: His Life Remembered").
Biography
Noted American author whose early death at age 45 and posthumously published works elevated him to the mythic status of romantic literary hero-victim. Agee's best known books include the compelling documentary collaboration with photographer Walker Evans, "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" (1941) which chronicled the hard lives of Alabama sharecroppers, and the autobiographical, Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, "A Death in the Family" (posthumously published in 1957).
As a film critic, Agee made a name for himself as the author of prescient, elegant prose in TIME and THE NATION during the 1940s. In 1948, he gave up reviewing to co-write John Huston's "The African Queen" (1951) and to script on his own the bizarre cult favorite, Charles Laughton's "The Night of the Hunter" (1955).
The two-volume "Agee on Film"--the first part containing his acclaimed film criticism, the second his screenplays--was published posthumously in 1958 and 1960, respectively. "All the Way Home," Tad Mosel's Pulitzer Prize-winning stage adaptation of "A Death in the Family," was presented on Broadway in 1961 and later served as the basis for the film version in 1963.
Filmography
Cast (Feature Film)
Writer (Feature Film)
Music (Feature Film)
Misc. Crew (Feature Film)
Music (Special)
Misc. Crew (Special)
Life Events
1932
Joined editorial staff of FORTUNE magazine as feature writer
1934
Collection of his poetry, "Permit Me Voyage" won publication in the Yale Younger Poets Series
1936
On assignment for FORTUNE magazine, created "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" with photographer Walker Evans
1949
Wrote and narrated documentary short, "The Quiet One"
1951
With director John Huston, co-wrote script for "The African Queen"
1955
Wrote the screenplay adaptation of Davis Grubb's "The Night of the Hunter"
Videos
Movie Clip
Trailer
Family
Companions
Bibliography
Notes
"Agee has become the literary intellectual's folk-hero equivalent of James Dean." --Webster Schott in The New York Times Book Review.
"I think as a critic he suffered from the fact that he really wanted to be a creator. His criticism, I think, is extremely good. It's good because he has a broad cultural background, he's got great style, he can say things in two sentences, he has intelligence, wit, and precision; and also he really does have a sense of values and he doesn't give them up. But as a person who wanted to be a creator, he kept seeing in movies all kinds of things that really weren't there ... Agee used to find some beauties in these films, some of which I don't think were there at all, but if he had been making them, they would have been ... He took the appearance for the deed. I think the main trouble with his criticism is that it often tends to be much too uncritical." --Dwight Macdonald ("Agee: His Life Remembered").
He was awarded the Yale Prize for Younger Poets (1932).
