Sarah Barrash Correspondence regarding Let Us Now Praise Famous Men and Mississippi Freedom Summer
This collection consists primarily of correspondence between Sarah Barrash, a graduate student at the University of Iowa, and numerous scholars concerning the impact of James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men on the Civil Rights Movement and specifically on the Mississippi Summer Project of 1964. It is Barrash's belief that Agee's work has mostly been read for its literary style and technique and not, as Agee intended, as "a swindle, and insult, and a corrective." The collection also includes an article published in Reckon magazine on the Civil Rights movement in Mississippi featuring a photograph of Bob Moses holding a copy of Letters of James Agee to Father Flye.
Dates
- 1995-1999 March 16
Conditions Governing Access
Collections are stored offsite and must be requested in advance. See www.special.lib.utk.edu for detailed information. Collections must be requested through a registered Special Collections research account.
Conditions Governing Use
The UT Libraries claims only physical ownership of most material in the collections. Persons wishing to broadcast or publish this material must assume all responsibility for identifying and satisfying any claimants on www.special.lib.utk.edu for detailed information. Collections must be requested through a registered Special Collections research account.
Extent
0.1 Linear Feet (1 folder)
Abstract
This collection consists primarily of correspondence between Sarah Barrash, a graduate student at the University of Iowa, and numerous scholars concerning the impact of James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Men on the Civil Rights Movement and specifically on the Mississippi Summer Project of 1964. It is Barrash's belief that Agee's work has mostly been read for its literary style and technique and not, as Agee intended, as "a swindle, and insult, and a corrective." The collection also includes an article published in Reckon magazine on the Civil Rights movement in Mississippi featuring a photograph of Bob Moses holding a copy of Letters of James Agee to Father Flye.
Biographical/Historical Note
James Rufus Agee (27 November 1909 - 16 May 1955) was born in Knoxville, Tennessee to Hugh James and Laura (Tyler) Agee on November 27, 1909. Respecting his mother and loving his father, the younger Agee was devastated by his father's death in 1916 in an auto accident. Two years later, his mother moved him and herself to Sewanee to be near the Episcopal monastery located there and to enroll her son in a school run by the monks. From there he went to Phillips Exeter Academy and then to Harvard, where he discovered his vocation to be a writer.
A parody written for the Harvard Advocate landed Agee a job as a writer with Fortune magazine. An expanded version of an article for Fortune became his first book, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. From Fortune, Agee moved on to Time to review books and movies. His movie reviews for Time led to writing scripts for television and movies. His most famous scripts were done for The African Queen and The Night of the Hunter.
On May 16, 1955 Agee died of a heart attack while riding in a New York cab. Besides his three wives and four children, Agee left behind an unfinished novel about the effect of his father's death on his childhood. Agee had been working on the book off and on for close to two decades. It was left to his friend David McDowell (1918-1985) to turn the chaotic fragments and draft chapters into a coherent novel. His success was such that A Death in the Family posthumously won Agee the Pulitzer Prize in 1957.
Arrangement
This collection consists of a single folder.
Acquisition Note
This collection was donated to Special Collections by Sarah Barrash Wilson.
Repository Details
Part of the Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives, University of Tennessee, Knoxville Repository