A Death in the Family: A Restoration of the Author's Text

by James Agee, Michael A. Lofaro (Editor)

Overview

Published in 1957 to wide acclaim, James Agee's A Death in the Family was posthumously awarded the Pulitzer Prize for literature. However, the novel had been so heavily edited by publisher and editor David McDowell that it little resembled the manuscript that James Agee had completed at the time of his death. The inaugural title of the University of Tennessee Press's scholarly edition of The Works of James Agee, this restored text of A Death in the Family is, in many ways, a new novel.
 
This volume provides, for the first time, a modern critical edition of Agee's manuscript, a novel based upon his childhood and his attempts to understand the death of his father. The new introduction is a revealing nightmare rather than an idyllic reverie; the book includes ten and one-third previously omitted chapters, substitutes three finished chapters for erroneously printed drafts, and is divided into forty-five chapters rather than twenty; it is chronological and has no flashback chapters; real names of people and places are used, as are more regional speech patterns; and young Rufus (based on young James), his father, and their deep and caring relationship are far more fully developed. All are changes that showcase the intended autobiographical realism of the novel.

This comprehensive edition also provides the reader with an introductory essay, a way to read the McDowell edition from it for purposes of comparison, Agee's draft of his memories of his father's death, unfinished letters to his parents, manuscript variants, and textual notes which document each part of the reconstruction.  The edition has received the approval of the Committee on Scholarly Editions of the Modern Language Association.

Wonderfully evocative, this exciting reconstruction of A Death in the Family provides a firmer sense of Agee's achievement as a writer of creative non-fiction and presents his literary genius to a new generation of readers.

Michael A. Lofaro is professor of American literature and American and cultural studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He has authored and edited numerous volumes, most recently Agee Agonistes: Essays on the Life, Legend, and Works of James Agee.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781572335943
Publisher:	University of Tennessee Press
Publication date:	12/30/2007
Series:	Collected Works of James Agee , #1
Edition description:	First Edition, First Edition
Pages:	615
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.60(d)

About the Author

Michael A. Lofaro is professor of American literature and American and cultural studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He has authored and edited numerous volumes, most recently Agee Agonistes: Essays on the Life, Legend, and Works of James Agee.
 

Table of Contents

Preface xi

General Textual Method xxiii

A James Agee Chronology xxix

James Agee's A Death in the Family 1

"towards the middle of the twentieth century" 3

"This little boy you live in": Perceptions c. 1911-1912 15

The Surprise: 1912 49

"Enter the Ford": Travel, 1913-1916 83

May 17, 1916: The Day Before 141

Daytime: May 18, 1916 181

Evening: May 18, 1916 203

Morning: May 19, 1916 283

"all the way home": The Last Day 311

Textual Commentary and Notes 357

Major Manuscript Variants 425

Marginal Notes 533

Word Choice Where No Preference Is Indicated 541

Paragraphing 547

Appendices

I How to Read the Corrected McDowell Edition of A Death in the Family from This Text and a Chart of Substantive Corrections to the Library of America Edition of A Death in the Family 549

II A Structural Comparison of the Restored and the McDowell Editions 563

III "Knoxville: Summer of 1915" 565

IV Agee's Memories of His Father's Accident and the Day Before 569

V Unfinished Draft of Agee's Letter to His Father 573

VI Unfinished Draft of Agee's Letter to His Mother 575

VII Letter from Agee's Mother [Mrs. Erskine (Laura Tyler Agee) Wright] Concerning A Death in the Family 577

VIII Outline and Possible Introduction to Agee's Massive Autobiographical Project and the Place of "This book" in It 579