海角大神

This week, with the publication of James Agee鈥檚 鈥淐otton Tenants: Three Families,鈥� literary sleuth John Summers is trying to correct a small but important part of Agee鈥檚 literary history.

Agee, who died in 1955 at age 45, is perhaps best known as the author of 聽鈥淎 Death in the Family,鈥� a beautiful, posthumously published novel based largely on the author鈥檚 early loss of his father.

But Agee (pronounced Ay-gee) is also famous for one of the most curious incidents in American letters 鈥� an episode that the new release of Agee鈥檚 long-forgotten 鈥淐otton Tenants鈥� is aimed at clarifying.

In 1936, Fortune magazine publisher Henry Luce sent Agee and photographer Walker Evans to do a slice-of-life story about poor Alabama farmers. But Fortune rejected the story, which eventually led to 鈥淟et Us Now Praise Famous Men,鈥� a book that combined Agee鈥檚 cryptic, stream-of-conscious narrative with Evans鈥� haunting pictures of Depression-era families to become a landmark of social documentary.

Over a couple of generations, while reading 鈥淟et Us Now Praise Famous Men,鈥� even many of Agee鈥檚 admirers had little doubt about why Fortune rejected Agee鈥檚 peculiar material. Asked to write about 鈥淟et Us Now Praise Famous Men鈥� several years ago, essayist Phillip Lopate said that the book 鈥渋s often glibly spoken of as a classic, but if it is, it must be one of the most unread and unreadable classics, which educated people would rather compliment than endure.鈥�

But in 2010, Summers, who edits The Baffler literary journal, became aware of an Agee typescript that seemed, based on circumstantial evidence, to be the original 鈥� and only known version 鈥� of the piece that Fortune had declined to publish. Interestingly, the typescript contains a much more conventional account of Agee鈥檚 Alabama travels than the story within 鈥淟et Us Now Praise Famous Men.鈥�

Summers鈥� discovery calls into question the long-held assumption that Fortune rejected Agee鈥檚 Alabama travelogue because of the article鈥檚 unrelenting experimentation. What now seems more likely is that 鈥淟et Us Now Praise Famous Men鈥� is a radically reimagined version of Agee鈥檚 Alabama experiences, and not merely a book version of his magazine piece. The unpublished magazine piece, although it contains flashes of Agee鈥檚 eccentric vision, is a much more conventional piece of journalism than 鈥淟et Us Now Praise Famous Men.鈥� 聽聽聽

Summers published a part of the rediscovered typescript in an issue of The Baffler. Now, the entire typescript has been published, along with Evans鈥� related photographs, in 鈥淐otton Tenants: Three Families."

The new book is a more accessible take on Agee鈥檚 Alabama trip, offering a sublime showcase for his frequently masterful prose style. Agee describes a poor tenant farmer鈥檚 day, for example, as 鈥渟trung between two flowerings of a lamp; slung from its meals as from three wooden pegs; and mostly work; and the leisure mindless.鈥�

But in other parts of Agee鈥檚 narrative, he proves maddeningly opaque, and a few of his sentences read like riddles, anticipating the mystical pronouncements of 鈥淟et Us Now Praise Famous Men.鈥�

Listen to this, for example: 鈥淗uman life, we must assume in the first place, is somewhat more important than anything else in human life, except, possibly, what happens to it.鈥� Huh?

Even so, the virtues and complication so 鈥淐otton Tenants鈥� stand on their own, making the book memorable in its own right, beyond its connection to 鈥淟et Us Now Praise Famous Men.鈥�

As reviewer John Jeremiah Sullivan wrote in an advance review of the 鈥淐otton Tenants,鈥� it鈥檚 鈥渘ot just a different book; it鈥檚 a different Agee, an unknown Agee. Its excellence should enhance his reputation...鈥�

Danny Heitman, an author and a columnist for The Baton Rouge Advocate, is an adjunct professor at LSU鈥檚 Manship School of Mass Communication.