Shelby Foote

"For a biographer Shelby Foote is a famously reluctant subject. In writing this biography however, C. Stuart Chapman gained valuable access through interviews and shared correspondence, an advantage Foote rarely has granted to others." "Foote is best known for his dazzling and definitive The Civil War: A Narrative. Written from 1954 to 1974, the three-volume opus was published during years when the South exploded with racial and political tensions and was forever changed.". "Born into Mississippi Delta gentry in 1916, Foote has engaged in a life-long struggle with the realities behind his persona, the classic image of the southern gentleman. His polished civil graces mask a conflict deep within.". "This biography shows him pining for aristocratic, antebellum culture while rejecting the practices that made possible the injustices of that era. Privately and vehemently Foote opposed the untenable segregationist stance of his region. Yet publicly during the 1960s and 7̀0s he skirted the explosive race issue.". "This biography recognizes that nowhere are Foote's personal conflicts, ambivalence, and outright contradictions more on display than in his fiction. Although Love in a Dry Season, Jordan County, and September, September are set in the contemporary South, they reach no firm social resolutions. Instead they entertain, dramatize, and come to grips with the social, gender, and racial barriers of the southern life he experienced."--BOOK JACKET.