The writer James Agee (1909-1955) was a poet, journalist, novelist, and screenwriter. He also was the author of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, an eloquent and anguished testimony about the essential human dignity of impoverished sharecroppers during the 1930s. The book is regarded as one of the most significant literary documents associated with the Great Depression.

Born November 27, 1909, in Knoxville, Tennessee, James Agee was the son of Hugh James and Laura (Tyler) Agee. His father worked for a small construction company founded by his father-in-law, while his mother had close ties to the Anglo-Catholic church and enjoyed writing poetry. His father's death in a car accident when James was six strongly influenced his life. He later described the incident in his autobiographical novel A Death in the Family, which was published posthumously (1957) and won a Pulitzer Prize. For most of his career he was a journalist writing...