Word of the Day
Agee (AY-jee)
1. American writer and critic
2. Baseball player
Common clues: 1958 Pulitzer winner; ex-Met Tommie; "The Morning Watch" novelist
Crossword puzzle frequency: 9 times a year
James Agee (November 27, 1909 – May 16, 1955) was a United States novelist, screenwriter, journalist, poet, and film critic. In the 1930s and 1940s, he was one of the most influential film critics in the U.S. His autobiographical novel, A Death in the Family (1957), won the Pulitzer Prize.
Agee was born at 15th and Highland Streets in Knoxville, Tennessee. He lost his father at the age of six in an automobile accident. Much of his early education was at a boarding school for boys. He attended Saint Andrew's School for Mountain Boys, now Saint Andrews-Sewanee School, Phillips Exeter Academy, where he edited the Monthly and Harvard University, where he was president of the Harvard Advocate.
After graduation, he wrote for Fortune and Time magazines. In 1934, he published his first volume of poetry, Permit Me Voyage, with a foreword by Archibald MacLeish. In the summer of 1936, he spent eight weeks with the photographer Walker Evans living among sharecroppers in Alabama. Although Fortune never published his article, the material became a book in 1941, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.
In 1951, Agee suffered the first in a series of heart attacks, which ultimately claimed his life four years later, at the age of 45, while riding in a taxicab in New York City. His considerable if erratic career as a movie script writer was by then curtailed by alcoholism, and his contribution to The Night of the Hunter (1955) remains unclear. During the 1950s he worked on movies with photographer Helen Levitt.
During his life he had modest recognition by the public but since his death in 1955 his literary reputation has grown enormously. Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941) has been placed among the top works of literature in the 20th Century by both the New York Public Library and the NYU School of Journalism selection committees.
Tommie Lee Agee (August 9,1942 in Magnolia, Alabama - January 22,2001 in New York, New York) was a centerfielder most noted for making what were arguably two of the greatest catches in World Series history. Agee was the 1966 Rookie of the Year, a two-time All-Star, and a two-time Gold Glove Award winner, and he was inducted into the New York Mets Hall of Fame in 2002. His major league career spanned five teams: Cleveland Indians (1962-64), Chicago White Sox (1965-67), New York Mets (1968-72), Houston Astros (1973) and St. Louis Cardinals (1973).
Tommie Agee was a star at Grambling State University and was signed by the Indians for a $60,000 bonus. He made only a few token appearances for the team over the next few years before being traded to the White Sox before the 1966 season. That year, a solid season in which he scored 98 runs, drove in 84, and stole 44 bases, earned him the Rookie of the Year award, a Gold Glove, and a trip to the 1966 All-Star game.
His follow-up performance the next year was not nearly so good, despite another all-star selection, and he was dealt to the New York Mets. His first season in New York was also a disaster: he was beaned by the very first pitch he saw in spring training and went 0-34 at the beginning of the season on his way to a .217 average and only 17 RBIs.
The 1969 Mets were known as the "Miracle Mets" for their worst-to-first turnaround in the National League, and Agee's personal turnaround played a big part. That season, he scored 97 runs and played brilliant defense, leading to a second Gold Glove. In the 1969 World Series, he was instrumental in the Mets' victory in Game 3, in which he hit a home run and made two incredible catches that saved five runs. This game was the highpoint of his career, though he was productive over the next two years and stitched together a 20-game hitting streak in 1970. After retirement, he operated the Outfielder's Lounge near Shea Stadium.
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "James Agee" and “Tommie Agee”.
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