Let Us Now Praise Famous Men

Let Us Now Praise Famous Men is a collaboration between writer James Agee and photographer Walker Evans documenting impoverished tenant farmers in the American South during the Great Depression. Commissioned amid New Deal programs and Depression-era reportage, the work blends prose, literary experiment, and documentary photography into a hybrid that challenged contemporary expectations for Harper's Magazine journalism and American documentary practice. Initially controversial, it has since become influential across photojournalism, literary modernism, and cultural studies.

Background and Conception

Agee, a writer associated with The Nation and Fortune (magazine), and Evans, a photographer known for work with Fortune (magazine) and The New Yorker (magazine), were sent by editor Raul K. Menezes of Fortune (magazine) to document a federal program related to tenant farming in the Appalachian and Deep South regions. The assignment coincided with initiatives from the Resettlement Administration and figures such as Harry Hopkins and Frances Perkins, who shaped Roosevelt administration relief policies. Agee and Evans traveled through Alabama, encountering families tied to landowners and local overseers, and passed through places near Birmingham, Alabama, Tuscaloosa County, Alabama, and rural areas proximate to Selma, Alabama. Their encounters occurred against the backdrop of New Deal debates involving agencies like the Agricultural Adjustment Act proponents and critics allied with representatives such as Huey Long and Al Smith.

Content and Style

The book juxtaposes Evans's stark black-and-white images with Agee's dense, experimental prose. Evans's photographs document interiors, exteriors, and portraits of tenant households in a manner comparable to his series for The Museum of Modern Art exhibitions and echoes visual strategies later seen in work by photographers associated with Life (magazine) and the Farm Security Administration. Agee's text ranges from reportage to lyrical meditation, incorporating lists, script-like dialogues, and interior monologue reminiscent of techniques used by writers such as James Joyce and Virginia Woolf. The narrative foregrounds individual families—often identified by given names or household roles—while resisting standard print journalism conventions then used by periodicals like Time (magazine), Collier's Weekly, and The New Republic.

Publication History and Reception

Originally conceived as an article series for Fortune (magazine), portions of the material were rejected or delayed; the pair then expanded the work into a book published by Houghton Mifflin in 1941. Early reception included criticism from contemporary literary reviewers at outlets such as The New York Times Book Review and commentators aligned with the cultural politics of McCarthyism's antecedents, while advocates in circles including the Library of Congress and curators at The Museum of Modern Art praised Evans's photography. Critical reassessment in subsequent decades—by scholars writing for journals connected to Harper's Magazine, The New Yorker (magazine), and university presses such as Harvard University Press and Oxford University Press—elevated the book's status. Reprints and annotated editions appeared from publishers including Vintage Books and academic editions produced with introductions by critics affiliated with institutions like Yale University and Columbia University.

Themes and Analysis

Central themes include poverty, dignity, and observation under asymmetrical power dynamics; Agee interrogates the ethics of representation and authorship in ways comparable to debates sparked by documentary figures such as Walker Evans's contemporaries and successors in the Farm Security Administration school. The text critiques social hierarchies linked to landlord-tenant relations historically documented in legal cases and policies involving entities like the United States Department of Agriculture and actors such as Earl Long and Tom Watson. Formal experimentation—fragmentation, metatextual commentary, and typographic variation—aligns Agee with Modernist literature practitioners including T. S. Eliot and William Faulkner, while Evans's visual austerity influenced photographers associated with Dorthea Lange and Gordon Parks. Scholars have analyzed the book through lenses advanced by theorists at universities such as Princeton University and University of Chicago, linking its ethical inquiry to broader debates in visual culture and historiography.

Influence and Legacy

The project's hybrid form influenced generations of writers and photographers working at intersections of narrative and image: later practitioners associated with Magnum Photos, the staff of Life (magazine), and authors affiliated with Creative Nonfiction programs cite it as formative. Academic courses at institutions like Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, New York University, and University of California, Berkeley include the book in syllabi on documentary ethics and photographic history. Museum exhibitions at venues such as The Museum of Modern Art, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and regional institutions in Alabama and Georgia (U.S. state) have foregrounded Evans's plates, while Agee's prose has influenced historians and biographers publishing with presses like University of North Carolina Press. Debates about representation, appropriation, and archival stewardship prompted by the work persist among curators at institutions including Smithsonian Institution and scholars participating in conferences hosted by organizations like the American Historical Association.

Category:1941 books Category:American nonfiction books Category:Photobooks