NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Shelby Foote

Shelby Dade Foote, Jr. (November 17, 1916 – June 27, 2005) was an American novelist and a noted historian of the American Civil War. With geographic and cultural roots in the Mississippi Delta alluvium, Foote's life and writing paralleled the radical shift from the agrarian planter system of the Old South to the Civil Rights era of the New South. Image File history File linksMetadata Foote0001. ... 17 November is also the name of a Marxist group in Greece, coinciding with the anniversary of the Athens Polytechnic uprising. ... 1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Greenville is a city located in Washington County, Mississippi. ... is the 178th day of the year (179th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... For other uses, see Memphis (disambiguation). ... For the album by the Kaiser Chiefs see Employment (album) Employment is a contract between two parties, one being the employer and the other being the employee. ... A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ... A historian is an individual who studies history and who writes on history. ... William Cuthbert Faulkner (September 25, 1897 â€“ July 6, 1962) was an American novelist and poet whose works feature his native state of Mississippi. ... â€œProustâ€ redirects here. ... It has been suggested that Cultural depictions of Fyodor Dostoevsky be merged into this article or section. ... For other uses, see Tacitus (disambiguation). ... Bust of Thucydides residing in the Royal Ontario Museum, Toronto. ... â€œDickensâ€ redirects here. ... 17 November is also the name of a Marxist group in Greece, coinciding with the anniversary of the Athens Polytechnic uprising. ... 1916 (MCMXVI) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar). ... is the 178th day of the year (179th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... A novel is an extended work of written, narrative, prose fiction, usually in story form; the writer of a novel is a novelist. ... Combatants United States of America (Union) Confederate States of America (Confederacy) Commanders Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee Strength 2,200,000 1,064,000 Casualties 110,000 killed in action, 360,000 total dead, 275,200 wounded 93,000 killed in action, 258,000 total... The shared flood plain of the Yazoo and Mississippi Rivers The Mississippi Delta is the distinct northwest section of the state of Mississippi that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers. ... Geographically, Old South is a subregion of the American South, differentiated from the Deep South as being the Southern States represented in the original thirteen American colonies, as well as a way of describing the former lifestyle in the Southern United States. ... New South is a term that has been used intermittently since the American Civil War to describe the American South, in whole or in part. ...

Foote was relatively unknown to the general public for most of his career until his appearance in Ken Burns' PBS documentary The Civil War in 1990, where he introduced a generation of Americans to a war that he believed was "central to all our [Americans'] lives."^[1] Kenneth Lauren Burns (b. ... â€œPBSâ€ redirects here. ... The Civil War was a highly popular and acclaimed PBS documentary about the American Civil War created by Sam Sim, and released on PBS in September 1990. ... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ...

Early life

Foote was born in Greenville, Mississippi to Shelby Dade Foote, Sr., son of a planter who had gambled away most of his fortune and assets, and Lillian Rosenstock Foote, daughter of a Jewish immigrant from Vienna. As Foote's father advanced through the executive ranks of Armour and Company, the young family lived in Greenville; Jackson; Vicksburg; Pensacola, Florida; and Mobile, Alabama. Foote's father died in Mobile when Foote was five years old, and he and his mother moved back to Greenville. Foote was an only child, and his mother never remarried.^[2] Greenville is a city located in Washington County, Mississippi. ... â€œWienâ€ redirects here. ... Armour and Company was an American slaughterhouse and meatpacking company founded in Chicago, Illinois in 1867 by the Armour brothers led by Philip Danforth Armour (1832â€“1901). ... Nickname: Motto: The city of Grace and Benevolence Coordinates: , Country State County Hinds, Madison, and Rankin Founded 1822 Government - Mayor Frank Melton Area - City 106. ... Vicksburg is a city in Warren County, Mississippi. ... Nickname: Location of Pensacola, Florida (top left) Coordinates: Country United States State Florida County Escambia Government - Mayor John Fogg Area - City 39. ... Official language(s) English Capital Tallahassee Largest city Jacksonville Largest metro area Miami metropolitan area Area Ranked 22nd - Total 65,795[1] sq mi (170,304[1] kmÂ²) - Width 361 miles (582 km) - Length 447 miles (721 km) - % water 17. ... It has been suggested that List of people from Mobile, Alabama be merged into this article or section. ... This article is about the U.S. State. ...

When Foote was 15 years old, Walker Percy and his brothers LeRoy and Phin moved to Greenville to live with family following the death of their mother. Foote began a lifelong fraternal and literary relationship with Walker, both of whom had great influence on each other's writing. Walker Percy (May 28, 1916 â€“ May 10, 1990) was an American Southern author whose interests included philosophy and semiotics. ...

Foote edited The Pica, the student newspaper of Greenville High School, and he frequently used the paper to lampoon the school's principal. In 1935, Foote applied to the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, hoping to join with the older Percy boys, but he was denied admission because of an unfavorable recommendation from his high school principal. He presented himself for admission anyway, and as result of a battery of admissions tests he was accepted.^[2] The University of North Carolina is a sixteen-university system which comprises all public four-year universities in North Carolina, United States. ...

Interested more in the process of learning than in earning an actual degree, Foote was not a model student. He often skipped class to explore the library, and once he even spent the night among the shelves. He also began contributing pieces of fiction to Carolina Magazine, UNC's award-winning literary journal.^[2]

Foote returned to Greenville in 1937 and worked in construction and for a local newspaper. Around this time, he began to work on his first novel.

In 1940 Foote joined the Mississippi National Guard and was commissioned as captain of artillery. After being transferred from one stateside base to another, his company was deployed to Northern Ireland in 1943. In 1944, he was charged with falsifying a government document relating to check-in of a motor pool vehicle he had borrowed to visit a girlfriend in Belfast. He was court-martialed and dismissed from the army. He returned to the United States and took a job with the Associated Press in New York City.^[2] Northern Ireland (Irish: ) is a part of the United Kingdom lying in the northeast of the island of Ireland, covering 5,459 square miles (14,139 kmÂ², about a sixth of the islands total area). ... This article is about the city in Northern Ireland. ... The Associated Press, or AP, is an American news agency, the worlds largest such organization. ...

Foote enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in January, 1945, and was discharged in November, 1945, having never seen combat.^[2] The United States Marine Corps (USMC) is a branch of the United States military responsible for providing power projection from the sea,[1] utilizing the mobility of the U.S. Navy to rapidly deliver combined-arms task forces. ...

After the war, Foote returned to Greenville and took a job with a local radio station, but he spent most of his time writing. He sent a section from his first novel to the Saturday Evening Post. "Flood Burial" was published in 1946, and when Foote received a $750 check from the Post as payment, he quit his job to write full time.^[2] There have been many publications called the Saturday Evening Post; several were/are local British newspapers. ...

Novelist

Foote's first novel, Tournament, was published in 1949. It was inspired by Foote's planter grandfather, who died two years before Foote's birth.

His second novel, Follow Me Down, was published in 1950. Foote drew heavily from the proceedings of a Greenville murder trial he attended in 1941 for the plot and characters of this novel.^[2]

His third novel, Love in a Dry Season, was his attempt to deal with the "so-called upper classes of the Mississippi Delta" around the time of the Great Depression. Foote often expressed great affection for this novel, which was published in 1951.^[1]

His fourth novel, Shiloh, was published in 1952. Foote foreshadows his use of historical narrative as he tells the story of the bloodiest battle in American history to that point from the first-person perspective of seven different characters.

His fifth novel, Jordan County: A Landscape in Narrative, was published in 1954 and is a collection of novellas, short stories, and sketches from Foote's mythical Mississippi county.^[1]

His sixth novel, September, September, was published in 1978. It is the story of three white Southerners who plot and kidnap the 8-year-old son of a wealthy African-American, told against the backdrop of Memphis in September, 1957. This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Year 1957 (MCMLVII) was a common year starting on Tuesday (link displays the 1957 Gregorian calendar). ...

Although he was not one of America's best-known fiction writers, Foote was admired by his peers—among them the aforementioned Walker Percy, Eudora Welty, and his literary hero William Faulkner, who once told a University of Virginia class that Foote "shows promise, if he'll just stop trying to write Faulkner, and will write some Shelby Foote."^[2] Foote's fiction was recommended by both The New Yorker and critics from the New York Times book magazine.^[1] Eudora Welty (b. ...

Historian

Foote moved to Memphis in 1953. Upon completion of Jordan County: A Landscape in Narrative, he resumed work on what he thought would be his magnum opus, Two Keys to the City, an epic work he'd had in mind for years and in outline form since the spring of 1951. He had trouble making progress and felt he was plunging toward crisis with the "dark, horrible novel." Unexpectedly, he received a letter from Bennett Cerf of Random House asking him to write a short history of the Civil War to appear for the conflict's centennial. According to Foote, Cerf contacted him based on the factual accuracy and rich detail he found in Shiloh, but Walker Percy's wife Bunt recalled that Walker had contacted Random House to approach Foote. Regardless, though Foote had no formal training as a historian, Cerf offered him a contract for a work of approximately 200,000 words.^[2] For other uses, see Memphis (disambiguation). ... Bennett Cerf on Whats My Line?, 1962 Bennett Alfred Cerf (May 25, 1898 - August 27, 1971) was a publisher and co-founder of Random House, also known for his own compilations of jokes and puns, for regular personal appearances lecturing across the United States, and for his television appearances... // Random House is a publishing house based in New York City. ...

Foote worked for several weeks on an outline and decided that his plan couldn't be done to Cerf's specifications. He requested that the project be expanded to three volumes of 500,000 to 600,000 word each, and he estimated that the entire project would be done in nine years.^[2]

Upon approval for the new plan, Foote commenced to write the comprehensive three volume, 3000-page history, together entitled The Civil War: A Narrative. The individual volumes include Fort Sumter to Perryville (1958), Fredericksburg to Meridian (1963), and Red River to Appomattox (1974). Combatants United States of America Confederate States of America Commanders Robert Anderson P.G.T. Beauregard Strength 85 soldiers 500 soldiers Casualties 1 dead 5 injured 4 injured The Battle of Fort Sumter (April 12 â€“ April 13, 1861), was a relatively minor military engagement at Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor... Combatants United States of America Confederate States of America Commanders Don Carlos Buell Braxton Bragg Strength Army of the Ohio Army of Mississippi Casualties 4,211 3,196 The Battle of Perryville, also known as Battle at Perryville and Battle of Chaplin Hills, was an important but largely neglected encounter... Template:Infobox Military Conflict TiTIES The Battle of Fredericksburg, fought in and around Fredericksburg, Virginia, on December 13, 1862, between General Robert E. Lees Confederate Army of Northern Virginia and the Union Army of the Potomac, commanded by Maj. ... The Battle of Meridian was fought in 1864 between Union forces led by William Tecumseh Sherman and the Confederacy. ... The Red River Campaign or Red River Expedition consisted of a series of battles fought along the Red River in Louisiana during the American Civil War from March 10 to May 22, 1864. ... McLean house, April 1865. ...

Foote supported himself during the twenty years he worked on the narrative with Guggenheim Fellowships (1955-1957), Ford Foundation grants, and loans from Walker Percy.^[1]^[2] Guggenheim Fellowships are awarded annually by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts. ... The Ford Foundation is a charitable foundation based in New York City created to fund programs that promote democracy, reduce poverty, promote international understanding, and advance human achievement. ...

Foote labored to maintain his objectivity in the narrative despite his Southern upbringing. He deliberately avoided Lost Cause mythologizing in his work. He gained immense respect for such disparate figures as Ulysses Grant, William T. Sherman, Patrick Cleburne, and Edwin Stanton. He grew to despise such figures as Phil Sheridan and Joe Johnston. He considered United States President Abraham Lincoln and Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest to be two authentic geniuses of the war. He stated this opinion once in conversation with one of General Forrest's granddaughters. She replied, "You know, we never thought much of Mr. Lincoln in my family."^[1] George Washington Custis Lee, 1832-1913, on horseback, with staff reviewing Confederate Reunion Parade in Richmond, Virginia, June 3, 1907, in front of monument to Jefferson Davis. ... Ulysses Simpson Grant (April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was an American Civil War General and the 18th (1869–1877) President of the United States. ... Portrait of William Tecumseh Sherman by Mathew Brady William Tecumseh Sherman (February 8, 1820 – February 14, 1891) was an American soldier, businessman, and author. ... Patrick Cleburne Patrick Ronayne Cleburne (March 16 or 17, 1828 â€“ November 30, 1864) was a major general in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, killed at the Battle of Franklin. ... Edwin McMasters Stanton (December 19, 1814 - December 24, 1869), born in Steubenville, Ohio, was an American political figure, prominent in the American Civil War and in the Reconstruction era. ... Philip Sheridan Philip Henry Sheridan (March 6, 1831 â€“ August 5, 1888), a military man and one of the great generals in the American Civil War. ... Joseph Eggleston Johnston (February 3, 1807 - March 21, 1891) was a military officer in the Confederate Army during the American Civil War, whose effectiveness was undercut by tensions with President Jefferson Davis. ... For other uses, see Abraham Lincoln (disambiguation). ... For the World War II general, see Nathan Bedford Forrest III. Nathaniel Bedford Forrest (July 13, 1821â€“October 29, 1877) was a Confederate Army general during the American Civil War. ...

The work received generally favorable reviews, though scholars criticized Foote for not including footnotes and for neglecting subjects such as economics and politics of the Civil War era.^[1]^[2]

Later life

After finishing September, September, Foote resumed work on Two Keys to the City, the novel he had set aside in 1954 to write the Civil War trilogy. The work still gave him trouble and he set it aside once more, in the summer of 1978, to write "Echoes of Shiloh", an article for National Geographic Magazine. By 1981, he had given up on Two Keys altogether, though he told interviewers for years afterward that he continued to work on it.^[2] The National Geographic Magazine, later shortened to National Geographic, is the official journal of the National Geographic Society. ...

In the late 1980s, Ken Burns had assembled a group of consultants to interview for his Civil War documentary. Foote was not in this initial group, though Burns had Foote's trilogy on his reading list. A phone call from Robert Penn Warren prompted Burns to contact Foote. Burns and crew traveled to Memphis in 1986 to film an interview with Foote in the anteroom of his study. Robert Penn Warren Robert Penn Warren (April 24, 1905 â€“ September 15, 1989) was an American poet, novelist, and literary critic, and was one of the founders of The New Criticism. ... Year 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link displays 1986 Gregorian calendar). ...

In November of 1986, Foote figured prominently at a meeting of dozens of consultants gathered to critique Burns' script. Burns interviewed Foote on-camera in Memphis and Vicksburg in 1987. In 1987, he became a charter member of the Fellowship of Southern Writers at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. The Fellowship of Southern Writers is a literary organization headquartered at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. ... This article does not cite any references or sources. ...

When Burns' documentary aired in September, 1990, Foote appeared in almost ninety segments, about one hour of the eleven-hour series. Foote's drawl, erudition, and quirk of speaking as if the war were still going on made him a favorite. He was described as "the toast of Public TV," "the media's newest darling," and "prime time's newest star," and the result was a burst of book sales. In one week at the end of September, 1990, each volume of the paperback The Civil War: A Narrative sold 1,000 copies per day. By the middle of 1991, Random House sold 400,000 copies of the trilogy. Foote later told Burns, "Ken, you've made me a millionaire."

Foote professed to be a reluctant celebrity. When The Civil War was first broadcast, his telephone number was publicly listed and he received many phone calls from people who had seen him on television. Foote never unlisted his number, and the volume of calls increased each time the series re-aired. ^[2] Many Memphis natives were known to pay Foote a visit at his Easy Parkway residence in east Memphis. In 1992, Foote received an honorary doctorate from the University of North Carolina. An Honorary degree (Latin: honoris causa ad gradum) is a degree awarded to someone by an institution that he or she may have never attended, it may be a bachelors, masters or doctorate degree - however, the latter is most common. ...

In the early 1990s, Foote was interviewed by journalist Tony Horwitz for the project on American memory of the Civil War which Horwitz eventually published as Confederates In The Attic (1998). Foote was also a member of The Modern Library's editorial board for the re-launch of the series in the mid 1990s.^[3] (This series published two books excerpted from his Civil War narrative. Foote also contributed a long introduction to their edition of Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage giving a narrative biography of the author.) Tony Horwitz is a reporter and author of the acclaimed books Confederates In The Attic and Baghdad Without A Map. ... Confederates in the Attic is a work of non-fiction by Pulitzer Prize winning author Tony Horwitz. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Foote was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1994. [1] Also in 1994, Foote joined Protect Historic America and was instrumental in opposing a Disney theme park near battlefield sites in Virginia.^[2] American Academy of Arts and Letters is an organization whose goal is to foster, assist, and sustain an interest in American literature, music, and art. ... Disneys America logo Disneys America was a theme park that was to be built by The Walt Disney Company in Haymarket, Virginia. ...

In one of his last television projects, Foote narrated the three-part series The 1840 Carolina Village, produced by award-winning PBS and Travel Channel producer C. Vincent Shortt in 1997. "Working with Shelby was a genuinely illuminating and humbling experience", said Shortt. "He was the kind of academician who could weave a Civil War story into a discussion about fried green tomatoes -- and do so without an ounce of presumption or arrogance. He was a treasure." ^{[citation needed]} The Travel Channel is a cable television network that features documentaries and how-to shows related to travel and leisure around the United States and throughout the world. ...

Foote died at Baptist Hospital in Memphis on June 27, 2005, aged 88. He was interred in Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis. His grave is beside the family plot of General Forrest. [2] is the 178th day of the year (179th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Elmwood Cemetery is the oldest active cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee. ...

Marriages

Bibliography

Fiction

Shiloh: a novel is a historical novel about the American Civil War battle of that name, written in 1952 by Shelby Foote. ...

Non-fiction

For the U.S. Continental Congress delegate, see Stephen Crane (delegate). ... The Red Badge of Courage (1895) is an impressionistic novel by Stephen Crane about the meaning of courage, as it is discovered by Henry Fleming, a recruit in the American Civil War. ...

References

External links

Categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | American Episcopalians | American historians | American military writers | American novelists | Historians of the American Civil War | Members of The American Academy of Arts and Letters | Military historians | Mississippi writers | People from Greenville, Mississippi | People from Memphis, Tennessee | Tennessee writers | United States Army officers | 1916 births | 2005 deaths The Lyceum The University of Mississippi (also known as Ole Miss) is public, coeducational research university located near Oxford, Mississippi. ... The University of Virginia (also called U.Va. ... The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer is an evening television news program broadcast weeknights on PBS in the United States. ...

Contents

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