A Death in the Family is an autobiographical novel by James Agee. It was based on events which occurred to Agee in 1915, when his father went out of town to see his own father, who had suffered a heart attack. During the return trip, Agee's father was killed in a car crash.
Premise
The novel provides a portrait of life in Knoxville, Tennessee, showing how such a loss affects the young widow, her two children, her atheist father and the deceased alcoholic brother.
Background
Agee commenced work on the novel in 1948. It was still incomplete at the time of his death in 1955. Reputedly, many portions had been written in the home of his friend Frances Wickes.[1]
It was edited and released posthumously in 1957 by editor David McDowell. Agee's widow and children were left with little money after Agee's death and McDowell wanted to help them by publishing the work.
Earlier draft
University of Tennessee professor Michael Lofaro maintains that the novel as published in 1957 was not the version intended for print by the author. Lofaro discussed his work at a conference that was part of the Knoxville James Agee Celebration (April 2005). Having tracked down the author's original manuscripts and notes, Lofaro reconstructed a version he considers more authentic. This version, entitled A Death in the Family: A Restoration of the Author's Text, was published in 2007 as part of the 10-volume set The Collected Works of James Agee (University of Tennessee Press). Lofaro is also the author of Agee Agonistes: Essays on the Life, Legend, and Works of James Agee (2007).
According to Lofaro, McDowell's alterations include:
The removal of the original opening, a nightmare scene, and its substitution with "Knoxville: Summer of 1915," a previously published short work of Agee's that was not intended as part of the novel.
A reordering of the presentation of events, which were originally shown in chronological order.
Chapters were removed.
Chapters were divided.
Certain chapters were moved and presented as flashbacks.
The number of chapters was changed from forty-four short chapters to twenty.
A film entitled All The Way Home (1963), adapted by Philip H. Reisman, Jr. from the Agee novel and the Mosel play, was filmed in the same Knoxville neighborhood where Agee grew up.
Samuel Barber wrote Knoxville: Summer of 1915 (1947, revised 1950) on commission from the American sopranoEleanor Steber, who had asked for a work for soprano with orchestra.
A stage musical debuted in 2022 titled Knoxville, written Frank Galati with music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. A "universal coming-of-age story about family, faith and love—and the boy who will grow up to write it. With a sweeping musical score blending folk, bluegrass and ballads." Knoxville was in rehearsals for its world premiere at the Asolo Repertory Theatre in 2020 but was forced to stop because of the pandemic. The show had its world premiere in 2022. [5]
Paul F. Brown, Rufus: James Agee in Tennessee, Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press (2018), 422 pages. ISBN1621904245.
Kenneth Curry, "The Knoxville of James Agee's A Death in the Family," Tennessee Studies in Literature XIV (1969), Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, pp. 1–14.
