Foote, Shelby (1916–2005)

US historian and novelist. After establishing himself as a novelist with five well-received books, he spent twenty years crafting his epic, three-volume The Civil War: A Narrative (1958, 1963, 1974), an even-handed, but moving, account of the Civil War.

He was born in Greenville, Mississippi and attended the University of North Carolina. He served in the Army and the Marine Corps. His book on the American Civil War is generally considered history-as-literature at its best. He became familiar to television viewers as consultant and interviewee on the series The Civil War (1990).