James Agee Papers
This collection houses correspondence, notebooks that Agee kept during his travels to Alabama and Cuba, movie reviews, and such personal effects as drivers licenses from New York and California and a bank book from the West Side Savings Bank. Much of the correspondence was written between James Agee and his third wife, Mia (Fritsch) Agee, and between James Agee and his mother, Laura (Tyler) Agee Wright. ***Materials in box 2 are currently closed to researchers except by permission of the James Agee Trust.
Dates
- circa 1936-1955
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
Patrons who wish to use portions of this collection must first obtain written permission from the owners of the copyright: The James Agee Trust Paul Sprecher, Trustee 302 Linden Ponds Way #214, Hingham, MA 02043 (201) 670-7569 Paul.Sprecher@verizon.net
Extent
0.75 Linear Feet (2 boxes [1 half box, 1 quarter box])
Abstract
This collection houses correspondence, notebooks that Agee kept during his travels to Alabama and Cuba, movie reviews, and such personal effects as drivers licenses from New York and California and a bank book from the West Side Savings Bank. Much of the correspondence was written between James Agee and his third wife, Mia (Fritsch) Agee, and between James Agee and his mother, Laura (Tyler) Agee Wright. ***Materials in box 2 are currently closed to researchers except by permission of the James Agee Trust.
Biographical/Historical Note
James Rufus Agee was born in Knoxville, Tennessee on November 27, 1909 to Hugh James Agee and Laura Whitman Tyler. He had one sister, Emma. Hugh Agee was killed in an automobile accident in 1916. In 1918, Laura relocated the family to Sewanee, Tennessee. James attended the St. Andrew’s School where he met Father James Harold Flye who would become his lifelong close friend and mentor. The Agees returned to Knoxville in 1924, and James attended Knoxville High School for a year, before transferring to Phillips Exeter Academy in New Hampshire. He was accepted into Harvard University’s class of 1932.
Upon graduation, Agee wrote for Fortune magazine from 1932-1937, and published his only volume of poetry, Permit Me Voyage, in 1934. In 1941, Agee turned material for a scrapped Fortune article into his first book, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Agee is also credited as a screenwriter on both The African Queen and The Night of the Hunter, both released in 1955. Published posthumously in 1957, A Death in the Family is Agee’s autobiographical novel set in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Agee led a somewhat tumultuous personal life. He was married to Via Saunders from 1933-1938. Later in 1938 he married Alma Mailman, and had a son with her, Joel, before their divorce in 1941. He then married Mia Fritsch in 1946, and they two daughters, Julia and Andrea, and a son, John. Agee died of a heart attack on May 16, 1955. In 1999, the street where Agee was born was renamed to James Agee Street in the Fort Sanders neighborhood of Knoxville.
Arrangement
This collection consists of a two boxes. Box two houses restricted materials.
Acquisition Note
The University of Tennessee Libraries purchased this collection in March of 2008.
Repository Details
Part of the Betsey B. Creekmore Special Collections and University Archives, University of Tennessee, Knoxville Repository