In the summer of 1936, James Agee and Walker Evans set out on assignment for Fortune magazine to explore the daily lives of sharecroppers in the South. Their journey would prove an extraordinary collaboration and a watershed literary event when, in 1941, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men was first published to enormous critical acclaim. This unsparing record of place, of the people who shaped the land and the rhythm of their lives, is intensely moving and unrelentingly honest, and today--recognized by the New York Public Library as one of the most influential books of the twentieth century--it stands as a poetic tract of its time.

At head of title: Three tenant families. "This volume is designed in two intentions: as the beginning of a larger piece of work; and to stand of itself, independent of any such further work as may be done ... The title of the work as a whole, this volume included, is 'Three tenant families'"--Preface. "Photographs reproduced through the courtesy of Farm Security Administration, United States Department of Agriculture"--1st preliminary page.

Book one : preliminaries --Book two: Verses -- Preamble -- All over Alabama -- July 1936. -- Late Sunday morning ; -- At the forks ; -- Near a church -- A country letter -- Colon -- Some findings and comments -- Money -- Shelter -- Clothing -- Education -- Work -- Conversation in the lobby -- Inductions -- Shady Grove, Alabama -- Two images -- Title statement -- Notes and appendices.