A quick note to inform readers of the passing of Shelby Foote. Anyone who has seen the Ken Burns documentary on the civil war is sure to remember Foote, who filled much of the film with wonderful anecdotes from the front lines and the rear eschalon.
He also wrote what is no doubt the single most substantive piece on the subject of the civil war, "The Civil War-A Narrative," which took roughly 20 years to write.
As the New York Times notes in the piece I have linked above, critics referred to Foote's drawl as "molasses over hominy," and I can't possibly think of a better way to describe the music of the man's voice. Ken Burns said of Foote, "He made the war real for us," and I couldn't agree more. Each volume of his three-part anthology had the look of a big-city phone book, but there has never been a more engaging and substantive work on the subject of the civil war, or perhaps any other.
Linton Weeks had this to add:
Maybe now the Civil War can finally be over.
He had his own internal conflict. He wanted to be known as a novelist but will forever be remembered as the author of a sweetly written, three-volume narrative history of the Civil War and as a television star because of his bourbon-voiced contributions to Ken Burns's PBS series on the war. His novels were good: His Civil War history was everlasting.
As a legacy, we should all be so lucky. To me his anthology was an addiction, and I have lost track of how many times I have read and re-read them. They were, and are, my favorite historical work and he, my favorite author.
Foote was a man I admired deeply, and though I never had the honor of meeting him, I will miss him as I would an old friend.
So long sir. And thank you...for everything.
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