A Death in the Family (Further Reading)

Further Reading

• Doty, Mark, Tell Me Who I Am: James Agee’s Search for Selfhood, Louisiana State University Press, 1981.

  One of the most psychologically intensive studies of Agee’s life, this book draws heavily off his letters and the writings of those who knew him.

• Kramer, Victor A., “Remembrance of Childhood,” in James Agee, Twayne’s United States Authors Series, No. 252, Twayne Publishers, 1975, pp. 142 – 55.

  This section of a standard overview of Agee’s life and work focuses on A Death in the Family and how it joined the end of Agee’s life with his first memories.

• Lowe, James, The Creative Process of James Agee, Louisiana State University Press, 1994.

  Lowe’s general theme is “disparateness” throughout Agee’s works: the ways in which his writings in different genres tended to draw in different directions.

• Madden, David, ed., Remembering James Agee, Louisiana State University Press, 1974.

  Madden provides a collection of essays by people who knew Agee, including Father James H. Flye, Robert Fitzgerald, Dwight Macdonald, and Whittaker Chambers.

• Moreau, Geneviève, The Restless Journey of James Agee, William Morrow, 1977.

  This book gives equal attention to Agee’s life and his work, claiming not to be a biography but a literary examination of the ways he drew from the familiar for his writing.

• Spiegel, Alan, James Agee and the Legend of Himself, University of Mississippi Press, 1998.

  Spiegel organizes his book around ancient mythic motifs, examining how Agee’s writings built a mythic personality for the author.