← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · robinder
Thread ID: 18895 | Posts: 11 | Started: 2005-06-29
2005-06-29 12:51 | User Profile
MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) -- Novelist and historian Shelby Foote, whose Southern storyteller's touch inspired millions to read his multivolume work on the Civil War, has died. He was 88.
Foote died Monday night, his widow, Gwyn, said Tuesday.
Foote, a Mississippi native and longtime Memphis resident, wrote six novels but is best remembered for his three-volume, 3,000-page history of the Civil War and his appearance on the PBS series "The Civil War."
He worked on the book for 20 years, using a flowing, narrative style that enabled readers to enjoy it like a historical novel.
"I can't conceive of writing it any other way," Foote once said. "Narrative history is the kind that comes closest to telling the truth. You can never get to the truth, but that's your goal."
That work landed Foote a leading role on Ken Burns' 11-hour Civil War documentary, first shown on the Public Broadcasting Service in 1990.
"He was a Southerner of great intellect who took up the issue of the Civil War as a writer with huge sanity and sympathy," said Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Ford, a friend and fellow Mississippi native.
Foote's soft drawl and gentlemanly manner on the Burns film made him an instant celebrity, a role with which he was unaccustomed and, apparently, somewhat uncomfortable.
Foote attended the University of North Carolina for two years and served in World War II, though he never saw combat.
Foote's first novel, "Tournament," was started before the war and published in 1949. Then came "Follow Me Down" in 1950, "Love in a Dry Season" in 1951, "Shiloh" in 1952 and "Jordan County" in 1954.
That same year, Random House asked him to write a one-volume history of the Civil War. He took the job, but it grew into a three-volume project finally finished in 1974.
In 1999, the Modern Library ranked Foote's "The Civil War: A Narrative" as No. 15 on its list of the century's 100 best English-language works of nonfiction.
Reading, he said, was as much a part of his work as writing.
After finishing his sixth novel, "September, September," in 1978, he took off three years to read.
Though hardly a recluse, Foote had long been known around Memphis as having little interest in parties and public gatherings. And he was often outspoken about his likes and dislikes.
"Most people, if the truth be told, are gigantic bores," he once said. "There's no need to subject yourself to that kind of thing."
Foote was born November 7, 1916, in Greenville, a small Delta town with a literary bent. Walker Percy was a boyhood and lifelong friend, and Foote, as a young man, served as a "jackleg reporter" for Hodding Carter on The Delta Star. As a young man, he would also get to know William Faulkner.
During World War II, he was an Army captain of artillery until he lost his commission for using a military vehicle without authorization to visit a female friend and was discharged from the Army. He joined the Marines and was still stateside when the war ended.
"The Marines had a great time with me," he said. "They said if you used to be a captain, you might make a pretty good Marine."
He tried journalism again after World War II, signing on briefly with The Associated Press in its New York bureau.
"I think journalism is a good experience, having to turn in copy against deadline and everything else, but I don't think one should stay in it too long if what he wants to be is a serious writer," Foote said in a 1990 interview.
Early in his career, Foote took up the habit of writing by hand with an old-fashioned dipped pen, and he continued that practice throughout his life.
He kept bound volumes of his manuscripts, all written in a flowing hand, on a bookshelf in a homey bedroom-study overlooking a small garden at his Memphis residence.
Though facing a busy city street, the two-story house was almost hidden from view by trees and shrubs.
"If I were a wealthy man, I'd have someone on that gate," he said.
Foote said writing by hand helped him slow down to a manageable pace and was more personal that using a typewriter, though he often prepared a typed copy of his day's writing after it was finished.
Married three times, Foote has a daughter, Margaret Shelby, and a son, Huger Lee. He and Gwyn married in 1956, three years after he moved to Memphis.
[url]http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/books/06/28/obit.foote.ap/index.html[/url]
2005-06-29 13:21 | User Profile
Still seeking relief two years later, Foote set out for Memphis, 150 miles upriver, where he settled into a small cottage in the middle of a black neighborhood overlooking the Mississippi River. Out of the ââ¬Åbig book,ââ¬Â Foote salvaged seven incongrous pieces for Jordan County (1954). More importantly, he had now steered himself onto his magnum opus, The Civil War: A Narrative. On the strength of Shiloh, Random House asked Foote for a short Civil War history. Foote soon realized that the project would require much more time and energy. Random House agreed, and using the money from his 1955 Guggenheim Fellowship (Foote would also win Guggenheims in 1956 and 1959), Foote set out to write the trilogyââ¬â¢s first volume, Fort Sumter to Perryville, a 400,000-word account, which was published in 1958. By 1963, Foote finished the second volume, Fredericksburg to Meridian. The 1960s were a difficult time for Foote. Desiring time away from his work, and seeking to avail themselves of the aura of Camelot, Foote and his third wife, the former Gwen Rapier, that same year moved to Washington where Foote would serve as Writer-in-Residence for the Arena Theater. (Ironically, weeks after they arrived, John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas.) The next year he began Volume 3, Red River to Appomattox, but he repeatedly found himself distracted by his anger at Southern segregrationist leaders. In a 1963 letter, Foote told Percy, ââ¬ÅIââ¬â¢m beginning to hate the one thing I really ever loved ââ¬â the South. No, thats [sic] wrong: not hate ââ¬â despise. Mostly I despise the leaders, the pussy-faced politicians, soft-talking instruments of real evil.ââ¬Â[url="http://www.olemiss.edu/depts/english/ms-writers/dir/foote_shelby/#N_7_"]color=#800080[/color][/url] Foote suffered through the final volume ââ¬â finally published in 1974 ââ¬â a volume that would take the same amount of time to write as had the first two volumes.
Three years after finishing The Civil War, Foote published September, September (1977), a novel that features white rednecks utilizing Orville Faubusââ¬â¢s 1957 tactics to kidnap a Memphis black boy. September, September met with some success (ultimately it was transformed into Memphis, a TV movie), but it didnââ¬â¢t spur more publishable work. For the next decade, Foote toiled away at small projects. In fact, were it not for Ken Burnsââ¬â¢ 1990 Civil War series, Foote would likely have toiled the rest of his days in relative obscurity. But his appearance in Burnsââ¬â¢ series ââ¬â in segments that capitalized on his mellifluous voice and anecdotal raconteurism ââ¬â transformed Foote into a national celebrity. After the series, Footeââ¬â¢s fame mushroomed exponentially. His books returned to print and sold tens of thousands of copies. Moreover, each dayââ¬â¢s mail brought fan letters, invitations for speaking engagements, and interview requests. Articles about Foote soon appeared in Newsweek, The New York Times, and The Washington Post. Foote even gained literary accolades. Though Walker Percy had nominated him two decades earlier for membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters (the Academy rejected Foote), now he was courted for membership.
obituary and links: [url="http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/news/2005/2005_0628_footeobit.html"]http://www.olemiss.edu/mwp/news/2005/2005_0628_footeobit.html[/url]
2005-06-29 16:22 | User Profile
I read one of his books...good read, RIP
btw...good age to die ;)
2005-06-29 16:23 | User Profile
As Albion's post reminds us, Foote was a scalawag, a liberal, and an overrated writer. While interesting reads, His Civil war series was pro-Union.
2005-06-29 17:52 | User Profile
[QUOTE=robinder]MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) -- Novelist and historian Shelby Foote, whose Southern storyteller's touch inspired millions to read his multivolume work on the Civil War, has died. He was 88.
During World War II, he was an Army captain of artillery until [I]he lost his commission for using a military vehicle without authorization to visit a female friend[/I] and was discharged from the Army. He joined the Marines and was still stateside when the war ended.
"The Marines had a great time with me," he said. "They said if you used to be a captain, you might make a pretty good Marine."][/QUOTE]Foote was court-martialed out of the army. He did not "lose" his commission. I suspect there was far more to the story than what has been told.
2005-06-29 18:33 | User Profile
[COLOR=Indigo][B][I] - "As Albion's post reminds us, Foote was a scalawag, a liberal, and an overrated writer."[/I][/B][/COLOR]
Jewhoo (which is not now online) wrote that he was also at least 1/4 Jewish from his mother's side.
Petr
2005-06-29 19:26 | User Profile
[QUOTE=edward gibbon]Foote was court-martialed out of the army. He did not "lose" his commission. I suspect there was far more to the story than what has been told.[/QUOTE]
Edward, here are some more details. Would this be considered going AWOL and enough to be court-martialed if true? The article says he later married the girl. [url]http://www.lib.utk.edu/refs/tnauthors/authors/foote-s.html[/url]
[QUOTE]Foote had other plans, however. He had been watching the rise of fascism abroad with interest, and when Hitler invaded Poland he decided events had reached a point of no return. He enlisted in the Mississippi National Guard, convinced war was imminent. In 1940 his unit was mobilized into the regular Army and sent overseas. Foote rose to the rank of captain before being court-martialed in 1944. The circumstances of the court-martial are murky, but it appears the charges were trumped up because of Foote's conflict with a superior officer. He was officially charged with falsifying government documents, in this case the mileage report on a trip to see his girlfriend in Belfast. The trip was slightly over the 50-mile limit imposed for using government vehicles, but apparently it was common practice to only cite the mileage from their camp to the city (50 miles), ignoring any small differentials caused by where the destination was located within the town. Whatever the extenuating circumstances, Foote was discharged following the court-martial and returned to the United States. [/QUOTE]
2005-06-29 23:56 | User Profile
"TAE: Your maternal grandfather was a Viennese Jew. Did you ever feel Jewish at all?
FOOTE: I went to the synagogue as a boy. I went to Saturday school, so that I know the Shema Yââ¬â¢israel and so on. But no, I never felt Jewish. And I always knew the disadvantages of being Jewish. Iââ¬â¢m three-quarters Episcopalian, and it seemed to me I was going to have a much easier time in life being an Episcopalian than I would as a Jew.
TAE: Have you ever been tempted by the religious impulse?
FOOTE: No. Thatââ¬â¢s left out of me. I have very little concern with life after death. Thomas Hardy said ââ¬ÅIââ¬â¢ve been looking for God for 50 years and if he was there, I would have found him.ââ¬Â
[url]http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleid.15666/article_detail.asp[/url]
2005-06-30 00:36 | User Profile
Reads like old Shelby was playing to an audience of jews...of course I've known jew wannabes who claimed they had a jew step-father...:unsure:
[QUOTE=Gabrielle]"TAE: Your maternal grandfather was a Viennese Jew. Did you ever feel Jewish at all?
FOOTE: I went to the synagogue as a boy. I went to Saturday school, so that I know the Shema Yââ¬â¢israel and so on. But no, I never felt Jewish. And I always knew the disadvantages of being Jewish. Iââ¬â¢m three-quarters Episcopalian, and it seemed to me I was going to have a much easier time in life being an Episcopalian than I would as a Jew.
TAE: Have you ever been tempted by the religious impulse?
FOOTE: No. Thatââ¬â¢s left out of me. I have very little concern with life after death. Thomas Hardy said ââ¬ÅIââ¬â¢ve been looking for God for 50 years and if he was there, I would have found him.ââ¬Â
[url="http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleid.15666/article_detail.asp"]http://www.taemag.com/issues/articleid.15666/article_detail.asp[/url][/QUOTE]
2005-06-30 09:14 | User Profile
Foote was an avuncular raconteur with an easy-on-the-ears drawl; the ideal tool used by his ideological soulmate Bowlcut Burns to subvert Southerners with the Yankjew Narrative: "See, crackers? Here's a Model New Southerner: one who sounds like you, but lauds your destroyer Lincoln as the greatest genius America ever produced - while of course making the obligatory spoonful-of-sugar noises about your Brave But Misguided racist scum ancestors. Listen to him and continue to pule 'heritage - not hate!' as you gradually disappear forever into the rancid sea of nigspic filth."
[COLOR=Red][SIZE=4]In a 1963 letter, Foote told Percy, ââ¬ÅIââ¬â¢m beginning to hate the one thing I really ever loved ââ¬â the South. No, thats [sic] wrong: not hate ââ¬â despise. Mostly I despise the leaders, the pussy-faced politicians, soft-talking instruments of real evil.ââ¬Â[/SIZE][/COLOR]
Foote in the raw.
2005-07-01 04:23 | User Profile
N.B. Forrest
You are very Right. Wow I had no idea hw was that bad. He was a Lincoln worshiper too.