In 1916, James Agee's father died instantly in a car accident while returning home from visiting his own ill father. Forty years later to the day, Agee would suffer a fatal heart attack in a taxicab on the way to a doctor's visit. But before his death Agee would work out a manuscript of reflection on the late night death of his father and its affect on the people closest to him, as well as a poetic reflection on the socio-economic climate of Knoxville itself in the early twentieth century. This manuscript would be published posthumously in 1957 as 'A Death in the Family', making James Agee the first person to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize after their death. .... On a sultry summer night in 1915, Jay Follet leaves his house in Knoxville, Tennessee, to tend to his father, whom he believes is dying. The summons turns out to be a false alarm, but on his way back to his family, Jay has a car accident and is killed instantly. Dancing back and forth in time and braiding the viewpoints of Jay's wife, brother, and young son, Rufus, Agee creates an overwhelmingly powerful novel of innocence, tenderness, and loss that should be read aloud for the sheer music of its prose. A previously owned and read copy. Slight cover wear.