enthalpy

Thursday, June 30, 2005


More on the passing of Shelby Foote.
The Civil War, Shelby Foote used to say, was our "Iliad" --- a well of tragedy, triumph and meaning as deep to Americans as the Trojan War was to ancient Greeks. In that case, we've lost a modern-day Homer.

The writer died Monday night at his home in Memphis, his widow, Gwyn, said Tuesday. He was 88.

Though he was born more than 50 years after Appomattox, Foote seemed somehow to have been there when Fort Sumter fell, when Pickett charged, when Lincoln slumped in his rocker at Ford's Theater. Long years of research and writerly craft made him a living link to the terrible conflict he called "the crossroad of our being."
I would have thought much more of the man if I hadn't found out he watched "As the World Turns."



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