Cinema (Special Collections): Writers

James Agee, 1909-1955 (James Agee Manuscript Collection MS.3824 )

Knoxville native James Agee was a prolific writer of books and screenplays. He wrote the screenplays for The African Queen (1951) and The Night of the Hunter (1955), but his most famous work is the novel A Death in the Family, published posthumously in 1957. This collection includes personal and professional material of Agee, including correspondence, manuscripts, photographs, and cassette recordings.

Also see: James Agee Papers, MS.1998; The Night of the Hunter Collection, MS.3795; James Agee and James Agee Trust Collection, MS.2730 (restricted access)

Other Agee-Related Items:

James Agee Movie Poster Collection, MS.4015; All the Way Home Script, MS.3541; Original Screenplay of All the Way Home, MS.3735; The Quiet One Photograph Collection, MS.3752; The African Queen Pressbook, MS.3865; Original Screenplay of A Tanglewood Story, MS.3760; The Night of the Hunter Pressbook, MS.3964; Noa Noa Screenplay, MS.3702 & MS.3771

Sam Raimi, 1959- (Samuel M. Raimi Brief Synopsis of "Book of the Dead", MS.4004)

Samuel M. Raimi is a filmmaker and actor, most noted for his cult horror films the Evil Dead series, starring Bruce Campbell. The first film in the series, The Evil Dead (1981), was filmed in a remote area of Morristown, Tennessee. This collection contains a manuscript with a brief synopsis for a film that would become The Evil Dead.

Alex Haley, 1921-1992 (Alex Haley Papers, MS.1888)

After a career in the military, Alex Haley began genealogical research on his family, tracing back to Gambia in the 1760s. He published his work in a much-anticipated book Roots (1976) which became an ABC television miniseries in 1977. Haley lived in Tennessee for parts of his life. Box 64 of this collection contains materials Haley assembled while working on the original television series and subsequent versions of Roots as well as a teleplay for Palmerstown, U.S.A. (1980).

Frances Hodgson Burnett, 1849-1924 (Original Screenplays from Frances Hodgson Burnett Books, MS.3861)

Frances Hodgson Burnett was a prolific writer, best known for her books The Secret Garden (1911), A Little Princess (1905), and Little Lord Fauntleroy (1885-6). Burnett moved to East Tennessee when she was 16 and began her writing career there. This collection contains the screenplays for The Secret Garden (1939) and The Little Princess (1949).

The night of the hunter: A biography of a film, 2009 (PN1997 .N5213 C68 2009)

The making of The African Queen, or, How I went to Africa with Bogart, Bacall, and Huston and almost lost my mind, 1987 (PN1997 .A28 H47 1987)

Remembering James Agee, 1997 (PS3501.G35 Z78 1997)

Chaplin and Agee: The untold story of the tramp, the writer, and the lost screenplay, 2005 (PS3501 .G35 Z95 2005)