Agee's colleague at Time in the 1940s, John Hersey, writes a major evaluation of Agee's work and the Agee legend in a new introduction to this literary classic. 64 pages of photos.

Based on reportage Agee did for Fortune magazine in 1936 covering three tenant farming families in Hale County, Alabama, and Agee's subsequent piece entitled 'Let us now praise famous men,' this work is a rediscovered 30,000-word typescript, published for the first time and is one of the most relevant and honest depictions of poverty in America's South.