Yes, its a weird title ... not exactly likely to have people queuing to buy the book. When I chose it for my Book Club (90% women) , their faces were aghast. But he had his reasons. ... His writing is not always easy, in the sense that it makes the reader (and author) uncomfortable and challenges constantly.
"The apocrypha is a selection of books which were published in the original 1611 King James Bible. These apocryphal books were positioned between the Old and New Testament (it also contained maps and geneologies). The apocrypha was a part of the KJV for 274 years until being removed in 1885 A.D. ....."
Another version of the book is titled Cotton Tenants
Knoxville is where Agee (and David Farragut) was born. It is the scene for his novel "A Death In The Family". Yes, another 'great' title (not). Can you imagine his publishers begging him to change it??? But its a wonderful piece of writing.
I could write lots more ... about Walker Evans and his photographs associated with the book (and others ). About Agee's journalism and his script writing and fascination with Charles Chaplin.
"It has become that time of evening when people sit on their porches, rocking gently and talking gently and watching the street and the standing up into their sphere of possession of the trees, of birds' hung havens, hangars. People go by; things go by."
“The honest man, tho' e'er sae poor,
Is king o' men for a' that” Robert Burns