American Writers (One Hundred Pages at a Time)

The end of this series on H. P. Lovecraft's letters. This set is a doozy with some monster letters to Frank B. Long, Wilfred Talman, and Woodburn Prescott Harris.

In this final episode on James Agee, I look at his shorter fiction, including "Morning Watch" and "Death in the Desert". They are all pretty excellent and worth checking out.

Lovecraft's letters in 1928 ranged in topics from literature to modernism to race and class. I review some of these letters as I continue to work my way through the second volume of The Selected Letters of H. P. Lovecraft.

In this episode I finish up my look at James Agee's novel A DEATH IN A FAMILY. I find the novel a bit more interesting in the second half as Agee explores issues of race, childhood, and maturation.

The highlight of the H. P. Lovecraft letters from the winter of 1927-28 is Lovecraft's account of a story-length Roman dream. He mediates quite a lot about the Romans and their history, in seeming preparation for his debates with Robert E. Howard.

The first part of my review of James Agee's DEATH IN THE FAMILY. This posthumously published novel won the Pulitzer Prize. I found it to be of interest, but a bit of a slog.

The H. P. Lovecraft letters I look at in this episode cover much of the second half of 1927. There is not much in the way of philosophy, but professionally it is an important period with the submission of "The Call of Cthulhu".

The episode in which I try to make some final sense of James Agee's LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN. I am pretty sure I am only scratching the surface.

Let's look at some more of H. P. Lovecraft's letters. In this episode I explore the ones he wrote in 1927. There are a few good and important letters here such as one to Donald Wanderi on metaphysics and one to Bernard Dwyer on culture, migration and modernism.

Part three of my review of LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN by James Agee. In this part of the book, Agee continues his report on the material conditions of life for the three sharecropping families. It will get weird again at the end.

The winter of 1926-27 Lovecraft wrote several interesting letters on his aesthetic and literary tastes and he worked on THE DREAMQUEST OF UNKNOWN KADATH. Some ennui at this time, it seems to me.

In part 2 of LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN by James Agee we get a look at the material conditions of life for our three sharecropper families, with special focus on their homes.

Back in Providence, Lovecraft felt more at peace, but his New York experience shaped how he even saw Providence as he began to explore it again. He saw pockets of his town he never noticed before. Lots of fun letters in this section showing these reflections on NY.

In this episode I look at more of H. P. Lovecraft's letters. These cover his final months in New York and his return to Providence. But this New York experience will stay in Lovecraft's mind for many years.

Part one of my review of the frustrating, fascinating, and beautiful work LET US NOW PRAISE FAMOUS MEN. I still do not know fully what to think of this one. It explores the lives of sharecroppers in the South during the Great Depression, but goes off the rails.

If you are interested here are some thoughts on a few pieces of James Agee's assorted journalism for FORTUNE and TIME, including some book reviews. The most interesting may be his look at cock fighting and the Tennessee Valley Authority.

For the first time in this podcast, I am looking at a screenplay. This one was by James Agee based on the book NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, about a Bluebeard character. Contains some real horror elements.

An episode where I try to look at a bunch of H. P. Lovecraft's letters from his time in New York.

In this episode, I look at a short story by Harry Houdini (ghost written by H. P. Lovecraft) called "Under the Pyramids". It is a beautiful story of the exploration into deep history even if the scare at the end is fairly typical of its writer. Narrated by Houdini, the "was it all a dream" suggestion has a bit more punch.

In this episode we finish up with Agee's film reviews for TIME. Overall, I think they are worth reading in the context of re-exploring some of the films of the 1940s.

Lovecraft revised a couple of interesting stories by Sonia Greene, his future wife. While we can identify a few Lovecraftian themes Sonia Greene brings her how thoughts to these tales.

In this episode I finish looking at Agee's NATION reviews and then jump into some he wrote for TIME. In 1948 Agee stopped writing film reviews for both publications.

In this episode I look at three of Lovecraft's revisions with Winifred Jackson and Anna Helen Crofts ("The Green Meadow", "The Crawling Chaos", and "Poetry and the Gods"). They are all interesting tales. The first two were mostly written by HPL. "Poetry and the Gods" was more of a true revision.

Part three of my review of James Agee's film reviews get us through some more of THE NATION reviews, including his review of MONSIEUR VERDOUX, the Chaplin classic.

Another one of my favorite Lovecraft stories, "The Shunned House" is a study in local history and mythology. Some of his best writing legacy of family histories.

More of James Agee's reviews from THE NATION, mostly of films from 1944 and 1945.

Another dive into family history, occult traditions, and the sea in "The Festival" by H.P. Lovecraft, but maybe most interesting about this story is the exploration of Kingsport's antiquarian architectures.

In this episode I start my look at the works of James Agee. Before jumping into his collaboration with Walker Evans, let's check out his film writings. This episode covers the first year or so of his work with THE NATION.

Two episodes packed into one as I finish up looking at THE NEW INDUSTRIAL STATE by John Kenneth Galbraith. Next up James Agee's journalism and film reviews.

"The Rats in the Wall" is a story by H. P. Lovecraft about a trans-Atlantic family and its history (kind of like "The Lurking Fear" in a way). It also follows the method of archeology going deep into British history.

One of my favorite Lovecraft stories, "The Lurking Fear" explores heredity, immigration, American history, and race all in the form of an interesting mystery tale.

Part two of my review of THE NEW INDUSTRIAL STATE by John Kenneth Galbraith. Here he digs deep into the workings of the "technostructure" and makes an interesting contrast with planning in the socialist states of the time.

Another interesting story by H. P. Lovecraft, "The Hound" is about art and its impact on searchers who become grave-robbers to satisfy their curiosity.

The U.S. economy is planned. But don't take my word for it. John Kenneth Galbraith laid it all out in THE NEW INDUSTRIAL STATE. Here are my thoughts on the first 100 pages of that book.

The "Unnamable" is a great little horror story that includes a philosophical discussion about the nature of terror. A bit on the known unknowns of common knowledge and the limits of official narratives.

Part two of my review of THE AFFLUENT SOCIETY by John Kenneth Galbraith. This part of the book explores the consequences of affluence and present Galbraith's policy recommendations about how to restore a public sphere.

In this episode, I look at a story fragment ("Azathoth") and very short complete story ("What the Moon Brings"). Both are experiments in cosmic horror and the stories share similar themes.

Part one of my review of THE AFFLUENT SOCIETY by John Kenneth Galbraith. This book remains relevant in our conversations about post-scarcity and the lack of balance between public and private spending.

Part 2 of my review of Herbert West: Reanimator, covering parts 4-6.

Re-uploaded.

Part one of my review and analysis of HERBERT WEST: REANIMATOR by H. P. Lovecraft. One of my favorite Lovecraft stories. Watch as I become convinced of a theory about the narrator over the course of my reading.