And Their Children After Them The Legacy of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men: James Agee, Walker Evans, and the Rise and Fall of Cotton in the South

"A stunning sequel to the James Ageea??Walker Evans' classic, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. It is at times astonishing, at all times deeply moving."-Studs Terkel "A book that reaches into this country's heart of darkness. . . . A tragically human story more telling than a thousand polls. The photographs by Mr. Williamson are eloquent."-Herbert Mitgang, New York Times "Mr. Williamson's photos are spellbinding and should become instant classics."-John Elvin, Washington Times In this paperback reissue, an author/photographer team returns to the land and families captured in James Agee and Walker Evans's inimitable masterwork Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, extending the project of conscience and chronicling the traumatic decline of King Cotton. In 1936, during a brief window of national attention to the topic, Fortune magazine commissioned from Agee and Evans a story on poverty among tenant farmers in Alabama. Agee was famously ambivalent in his role, calling himself a spy and ultimately delivering a book-length manuscript unpublishable in magazine form. With this continuation of Agee and Evans's work, Maharidge and Williamson not only uncover some surprising historical secrets relating to the families and to Agee himself, but also effectively lay to rest Agee's fear that his work, from lack of reverence or resilience, would be but another offense to the humanity of its subjects. Williamson's 90-part photo essay includes updates alongside Evans' classic originals. Dale Maharidge (Homeland, Journey to Nowhere) has been a visiting professor of journalism at Columbia University and Stanford, and a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1998. Michael Williamson is a photographer for the Washington Post who won a second Pulitzer for his coverage of the war in Kosovo.

When he isn’t crossing the country talking to the people who live here, former newspaper reporter DALE MAHARIDGE has been a visiting professor of journalism at Columbia University and Stanford. He was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University in 1987–88. He lives in Northern California. MICHAEL WILLIAMSON is a photographer for the Washington Post who, in addition to the Pulitzer Prize he shares with Maharidge, won a second Pulitzer Prize for his coverage of the war in Kosovo. His other honors include the World Press Photo and Nikon World Understanding Through Photography awards.