Daily Dot: Shelby Foote

 

On June 27, 2005, Shelby Foote died. Foote was little-known outside academic circles, and was well into his 70s, when the Ken Burns documentary The Civil War aired on PBS in 1990. Much was (justifiably) made of Burns's then-remarkable use of still photography and excerpts from letters as keys to driving the film's narrative. However, The Civil War would have been so much flatter without the presence of Foote, who emerged as an exceptional storyteller. Foote was 88 when he died.