AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT of His Important Article on John Huston Published in LIFE Magazine
1940s. Manuscript. Included are 23 pages of a handwritten ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT in pencil on unlined 8-1/2" x 11" and lined 6" x 9" paper, along with a 15-page carbon typescript draft of most of the article that appeared in LIFE on 18 September 1950. A fair amount of the content here was not used in the published article, or was changed significantly, adding to the interest of this archive. One example of many is towards the end of the article. In the typescript here, Agee writes, "Huston involves his audience so deeply in his characters and in the whole screen, and places his camera so well, that he never needs to underline such matters, or draw diagrams. He repeatedly makes points through such minutiae as the twitch of an eyelid, yards from the camera, for which most men would require a closeup or dialogue. Economy and understatement are constant essentials in his storytelling." He goes on in even more detail for several more sentences. In the finished article, this is boiled down to: "By such simplicity Huston can draw the eye so deep into the screen that time and again he can make important points in medium shots, by motions as small as the twitching of an eyelid, for which most directors would require a close-up or even a line of dialogue." Agee was the most incisive film critic of the mid twentieth century, regularly reviewing films for THE NATION and TIME. Of his film criticism, W. H. Auden claimed, "In my opinion, his column is the most remarkable regular event in American journalism today" (Letter to the Editors of THE NATION, 16 October 1944). Throughout his career as a film critic, Agee was a champion of Huston's work. In the process of writing this article, Agee met Huston for the first time. The two would later collaborate as screenwriter and director, respectively, on THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1958). Manuscript pages lightly toned, typescript pages a bit darker. Some scattered soiling and minor edgewear throughout. Near Fine. Item #022633
Agee is best known for his movie criticism and for two books: LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN, an important work in the history of 20th-century photo-documentary illustrated by Walker Evans, and the posthumous A DEATH IN THE FAMILY which won the Pulitzer Prize. He is one of the credited screenwriters on two of the most respected films of the 1950s: THE AFRICAN QUEEN (1951) and THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTER (1955). He died from a heart attack in a New York taxi at the age of 45, in 1955. From the William A. Strutz Library via Hamill & Barker, Chicago.
Price: $12,500.00