History Writers | Academic Historians | Tour Guides | Preservationists
This section of the Civil War Legacy web site focuses on pioneers, from yesterday and today, who have played pivotal roles in preserving the stories, lessons, historical sites, memorabilia, etc. of the Civil War. These intrepid leaders have also inspired others to pick up the baton to advance the cause.
I am utilizing the following categories to address these preeminent Legends & Leaders:
This is obviously a very contrived way to categorize important people, many of whom have positively affected our study and appreciation of the Civil War in a multitude of ways and therefore defy categorization. I will nevertheless adhere to this artificial classification system until someone comes up with a better way to handle the topic. For each Legend & Leader discussed, I will provide some interesting biographical information, major achievements, resources, etc.
I have listed some of the Legends & Leaders whom I am initially considering for this section. Please let me know if you have ideas about other people to include and/or additional information and web site links to add.
History Writers
Bruce Catton
Burke Davis
William C. Davis
Shelby Foote
Douglas Southall Freeman
Ulysses S. Grant
Alan T. Nolan
Harry W. Pfanz
John J. Pullen
Tour Guides
Edwin Cole Bearss
Robert K. Krick
History Writers
Shelby Foote
Biographical Profile
Shelby Foote was born and raised in Greenville, Mississippi, a small Delta town that spawned other accomplished writers such as William Faulkner and Foote's close friend Walker Percy (there is a recent book that featured the letters that Foote and Percy exchanged). Foote started off as a novelist and used those same principles to make the story of the Civil War come alive in the narrative tradition of Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. He chose not to provide footnotes for his exhaustive coverage of the Civil War and to focus instead on crafting the story in a way that could appeal to newcomers and experts alike. Foote spent most of his writing years in Memphis where he recently passed away at the age of 88.
Published Books
Shelby Foote published Tournament (1949), Follow Me Down (1950), Love in a Dry Season (1951), Shiloh (1952), Jordan County (1954) before he produced his acclaimed masterpiece The Civil War: A Narrative. Foote's history trilogy was published as follows:
* Fort Sumter to Perryville (1958)
*Fredericksburg to Meridian (1963)
*Red River to Appomattox (1974)
After completion of his Civil War tomes for Random House, Foote returned to writing novels and published September, September in 1977. Although Foote never received any major awards for his Civil War treatise, he developed a large following as a result of his charming, insightful performance in Ken Burns' PBS documentary on the Civil War. Sales of his Civil War trilogy skyrocketed after the PBS series.
With such a strong sustained demand for Foote's Civil War narrative, Time-Life Books took his trilogy and reproduced it in fourteen installments that include superb photos and maps printed on high-quality paper stock. Random House's The Modern Library carved out the Gettysburg (Stars in Their Courses) and Vicksburg content from Foote's trilogy to produce two small but potent books, which are available on audiotape too. Foote did the readings for these two The Modern Library audio books. His massive trilogy in its entirety is available on audiotape via Blackstone Audio Books (although someone else did the reading for this production, it is still of significant value for "Foote aficionados").
Resources
Several books have been written about Shelby Foote:
William C. Carter, ed. Conversations with Shelby Foote (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1989) *This is by far my favorite book about Shelby Foote. It is a compilation of interviews conducted with Foote from 1950 to 1987. Most are interviews in print media but there are also some from television including one with Dick Cavett in 1979. *Since this publication is predicated on interviews with Foote, and therefore is not a well-edited cohesive book, it is a bit rough and somewhat redundant. Nevertheless, the reader gets an opportunity to learn more about Shelby Foote's opinions regarding the Civil War, the fundamentals of good writing, etc.
Robert L. Phillips, Jr. Shelby Foote: Novelist and Historian (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1992). *Phillips' book is good but a lot of it deals with Foote's novels. *There are some really good quotes about writing, however, such as:
C. Stuart Chapman. Shelby Foote: A Writer's Life (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2003). *I found this book to be very disappointing. So did the reviewer for the Wall Street Journal. Stuart Morris wrote in his review on August 7, 2003, that Chapman, then the press secretary to a liberal California Congresswoman, spent too much time trying to develop a hypothesis that Shelby Foote wrote his Civil War trilogy to escape "the conflicts of the 1960s civil-rights movement." Morris stated that ironically Chapman's own biography of Foote disproved this theory, revealing that the writer had been an outspoken critic of segregation in the South during his career.
C-SPAN *"BookTV" did several interviews with Shelby Foote focused on his views of writing. Of particular interest was an in-depth three hour interview conducted on September 2, 2001. Additionally, there is a one-hour session on Gettysburg from July 1994 ("Stars in Their Courses") and a December 1996 special program with Peggy Noonan and David Halberstam. The videotapes of these Shelby Foote interviews can be purchased via C-SPAN and are especially invaluable for anyone who enjoyed Foote's charming style and cogent insights.
Miscellaneous
I had the privilege of having dinner with Shelby Foote at a Civil War preservation meeting in 1994. I will upload the photo later that I had taken with him. Last summer, I wrote to Shelby Foote to let him know how much I have appreciated not only his Civil War books but also the tremendous insights and inspiration he has provided to first-time writers like me. On August 18 of last year, Shelby Foote wrote back to me–in his wonderful script (done with his trademark dip ink pen). Regarding my own writing pursuits, Foote provided me with some suggestions:
"As for tips on writing, I don't think that what academics call 'creative writing' can be taught; it has to be absorbed–by writing & rewriting, & above all, by reading & rereading. When you know where a writer is going, you can see better how he got there."
