David Madden

Jeffrey Jay Folks

Novelist, poet, screenwriter, journalist, film critic, and cult hero, James Agee was a man of many talents. This collection examines Agee's achievements from the perspective of family members, friends, and contemporaries to create a multifaceted portrait of a dynamic and influential man. Included are recollections and commentary from Agee's widow, his lifelong friend and teacher Father Flye, his editor David McDowell, and other notables, including John Huston, Andrew Lytle, and Walker Evans, with whom Agee collaborated on Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. For this edition, the editors have added new insights from such luminaries as Robert Fitzgerald, Dwight Macdonald, and Frederick Manfred, along with Agee critics Scott Bates, Edward Carlos, James Lee, Edwin M. Sterling, and William Stott. In addition, editor Jeffrey J. Folks has contributed a new preface outlining the state of Agee criticism in the years since the first edition was published in 1974. With liveliness and candor, Remembering James Agee evokes the life and personality of a writer and critic who holds a unique place in American letters.

Remembering James Agee

Drawing on the theories of philosophers of ethics including Hannah Arendt and Alasdair MacIntyre, Damaged Lives: Southern and Caribbean Narrative from Faulkner to Naipaul studies how moral skepticism harms ordinary human beings. In response to an indecisive and uncommitted culture, many writers from the American South and the Caribbean have sought unambiguous sources of order and belief. Damaged Lives shows how a yearning for conviction pervades the writing of William Faulkner, F. Scott Fitzgerald, James Agee, Flannery O'Connor, Mary Hood, and V. S. Naipaul. This book will be useful in courses on modern American and Caribbean literature as well as in courses on ethics, American studies, and cultural studies.

Jeffrey Jay Folks

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