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Article: Close enough to hurt: Dale Maharidge on Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, by James Agee, and The Importance of 'Living' journalism.(Second Read)
- Article from:
- Columbia Journalism Review
- Article date:
- January 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Columbia University, Graduate School of Journalism. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Some years ago I dined at the Harvard Lampoon, the closed society that publishes the eponymous humor magazine. Located in a castle funded in part by William Randolph Hearst, the Lampoon's chambers harbor myriad relics: a medieval clock, a fourth-century stained-glass window, a conquistador's armor, a couch from San Simeon, altars of worship to writers such as James Agee. It was because of my relationship with Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, Agee and Walker Evans's collaborative work about Alabama sharecroppers during the Great Depression, that I'd been invited to socialize at the castle.
There was no electric light. Dozens of candies illuminated the rooms. My host, ...