winterbadger | RIP, Shelby Foote

Civil War authority Shelby Foote dead
Writer became famous for history of conflict, Burns documentary

MEMPHIS, Tennessee (AP) -- Novelist and Civil War historian Shelby Foote, whose appearances on a PBS-TV documentary series helped America better understand one of the most defining periods of its past, has died, his family said Tuesday.

Foote's widow, Gwen, said her husband, who was 88, died Monday night.

Foote, a Mississippi native and longtime Memphis resident, wrote six novels but is best remembered for his three-volume, 3,000-word history of the Civil War.

Relying on a Southern storyteller's touch, he presented that history in a flowing, narrative style. He spent 20 years writing it.

"I can't conceive of writing it any other way," Foote once told The Associated Press in an interview. "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 an 11-hour TV documentary on the Civil War, first shown on the Public Broadcast System in 1990. It was produced and directed by documentarian Ken Burns.

You can read the full article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/books/06/28/obit.foote.ap/index.html