A re-discovered masterpiece of reporting by a literary icon and a celebrated photographer In 1941, James Agee and Walker Evans published Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, a 400-page prose symphony about three tenant farming families in Hale County, Alabama, at the height of the Great Depression. The book shattered journalistic and literary conventions. Critic Lionel Trilling called it the “most realistic and most important moral effort of our American generation.” The origins of Agee and Evans’s famous collaboration date back to an assignment for Fortune magazine, which sent them to Alabama in the summer of 1936 to report a story that was never published. Some have assumed that Fortune’s editors shelved the story because of the unconventional style that marked Famous Men, and for years the original report was presumed lost. But fifty years after Agee’s death, a trove of his manuscripts turned out to include a typescript labeled “Cotton Tenants.” Once examined, the pages made it clear that Agee had in fact written a masterly, 30,000-word report for Fortune. Published here for the first time, and accompanied by thirty of Walker Evans’s historic photos, Cotton Tenants is an eloquent report of three families struggling through desperate times. Indeed, Agee’s dispatch remains relevant as one of the most honest explorations of poverty in America ever attempted and as a foundational document of long-form reporting. As the novelist Adam Haslett writes in an introduction, it is “a poet’s brief for the prosecution of economic and social injustice.”

Facing his share of ordinary challenges, from local bullies to his father's failed expectations, eleven-year-old Jack Clark must also deal with the effects of the Dust Bowl in 1937 Kansas, including the rising tensions in his small town and the spread ofa shadowy illness.

This opulent and expansive volume, published in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art's monumental exhibition Made in California: Art, Image, and Identity,1900-2000, charts the dynamic relationship between the arts and popular conceptions of California. Displaying a dazzling array of fine art and material culture, Made in California challenges us to reexamine the ways in which the state has been portrayed and imagined. Unusually inclusive, visually intriguing, and beautifully produced, this volume is a delight throughout--both in image and in text--and will appeal to anyone who has lived in, visited, or imagined California.

If you’ve got a love and passion for photography, and a feel for your camera gear and settings, yet your images still fall short–The Passionate Photographer will help you close that disappointing and frustrating gap between the images you thought you took and the images you actually got. This book will help you determine what you want to say with your photography, then translate those thoughts and feelings into strong images. It is both a source of inspiration and a practical guide, as photographer Steve Simon distills 30 years of photographic obsession into the ten crucial steps every photographer needs to take in order to become great at their passion. Simon’s practical tips and advice are immediately actionable–designed to accelerate your progress toward becoming the photographer you know you can be. Core concepts include: - The power of working on personal projects to fuel your passion and vision - Shooting a large and targeted volume of work, which leads to a technical competence that lets your creativity soar - Learning to focus your concentration as you shoot, and move outside your comfort zone, past your fears toward the next great image - Strategies for approaching strangers to create successful portraits - How to edit your own work and seek second opinions to identify strengths and weaknesses, offering opportunities for growth and improvement with a goal of sharing your work with the world - The critical need to follow, see, and capture the light around you Along the way, Simon offers inspiration with “Lessons Learned” culled from his own extensive experience and archive of photojournalism and personal projects, as well as images and stories from acclaimed photographers. If you’re ready to be inspired and challenge yourself to take your photography to the next level, The Passionate Photographer provides ideas and creative solutions to transform that passion into images that convey your unique personal vision.

THE STORY: No men are onstage, but their presence is felt everywhere in this office comedy for the new millennium. Two generations of women, career secretaries in their forties and entry-level assistants in their twenties, gather in the break room

After years of working to change schools from within-testifying before Congress and addressing audiences around the world about how to make schools better places for children-John Holt founded Growing Without Schooling magazine in 1977 to support self-directed education and learning outside of school. Each issue is a lively exchange among readers and Holt, packed with useful advice, resource recommendations, and all sorts of legal, pedagogical, and parenting ideas from people who pioneered what we now call homeschooling. John Holt (1983-1985) is the author of How Children Learn and How Children Fail, which together have sold over a million and a half copies, and eight other books about children and learning. His work has been translated into more than 40 languages. Once a leading figure in school reform, John Holt became increasingly interested in how children learn outside of school. The magazine he founded, Growing Without Schooling (GWS), reflects his philosophy, which he called unschooling. GWS was published from 1977 to 2001 and is the first magazine devoted to homeschooling and self-directed education.