Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. Three Tenant Families. Thompson, Hunter S. - Agee, James, & Walker Evans.

First expanded edition, first printing, Hunter S. Thompson's copy, with his ownership inscription to the front free endpaper. Thompson's style of Gonzo journalism has its roots in the reeling subjectivity of Agee's narration of Southern labour lives, sharing in his denigration of "honest journalism" and curiosity with the lives of the "undefended and appallingly damaged" (intro). First published in 1941, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men began as a collaboration between photographer Walker Evans and writer James Agee, sent by Fortune Magazine to write a feature on white tenant farmers in the South during the height of the depression. Evans' quiet, composed images influenced Thompson's own amateur photography, and Agee is considered a precursor to the New Journalists. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men was not originally a success; it wasn't until the expanded edition, which included all the photographs Evans originally hoped to include, that the book found its natural audience in the 1960s. Roth 101 p. 108. Parr & Badger. Octavo. Original black cloth, titles to spine in silver. With dust jacket. With photographs by Walker Evans. Spine ends and tips slightly bumped with a little rubbing to extremities and titles, else boards clean and firm, contents bright and unmarked. A near-fine copy, in the lightly rubbed jacket, a little wear to head of spine panel with small chip, a few short closed tears to extremities and the occasional mark, unclipped.