Revising James Agee’s ‘Death’

James Agee died two years before his novel, “A Death in the Family,” was published in 1957. He never lived to see the book win the Pulitzer Prize in 1958. He never even approved its final form.

Now Agee scholar Michael Lofaro says that “A Death in the Family” was pulled together by a misguided editor whose final version does not match Agee’s intentions. Using Agee’s original manuscript -- stacks of yellow paper covered with a tiny cursive hand, written in pencil -- Lofaro is reconstructing what he believes is a more authentic version of “A Death in the Family.”

Lofaro’s work coincides with the James Agee Celebration at the University of Tennessee, only a few blocks from the author’s childhood home in Knoxville. Lofaro, an English professor there, will discuss his work at a conference this week as part of events that include art shows, films, theater performances and concerts.

Agee’s wife and three children were left with little money when he died, and editor David McDowell decided to help them by publishing some of Agee’s work. Lofaro says McDowell took pieces of the nearly completed “A Death in the Family” and rearranged them in a way he thought would appeal to the 1950s audience.

Lofaro’s reconstruction is due out in 2007 as part of a 10-volume “The Works of James Agee.”