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    The Civil War Trilogy Box Set

    With American Homer: Reflections on Shelby Foote and His Classic The Civil War: A Narrative

    Author Shelby Foote
    Edited by Jon Meacham
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    Boxed Set (Hardcover)
    $150.00 US
    Random House Group | Modern Library
    6"W x 9"H x 6.81"D   | 143 oz | 3 per carton
    On sale Mar 23, 2011 | 2984 Pages | 9780679643708
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    A handsome boxed set of Shelby Foote’s three-volume masterpiece, selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time—a comprehensive, extensively researched history of the Civil War, accompanied by American Homer: Reflections on Shelby Foote and His Classic Civil War

    “The writing is superb . . . one of the historical and literary achievements of our time.”—The Washington Post Book World

    In 1954, Random House publisher Bennett Cerf commissioned southern novelist Shelby Foote to write a short, one-volume history of the American Civil War. Thirty years and a million and a half words later—every word having been written out longhand with nib pens dipped into ink—Foote published the third and final volume of what has become the classic narrative of that epic war.

    Foote’s tremendous, sweeping narrative of the most fascinating conflict in our history—a war that lasted four long, bitter years, an experience more profound and meaningful than any other the American people have ever lived through—begins with Jefferson Davis’s resignation from the United States Senate and Abraham Lincoln’s departure from Springfield for the national capital. It is these two leaders, whose lives continually touch on the great chain of events throughout the story, who are only the first of scores of exciting personalities that in effect make The Civil War a multiple biography set against the crisis of an age.

    Four years later, Lincoln’s second inaugural sets the seal, invoking “charity for all” on the Eve of Five Forks and the Grant-Lee race for Appomattox. Here is the dust and stench of war, a sort of Twilight of the Gods. The epilogue is Lincoln in his grave, and Davis in his postwar existence—“Lucifer in Starlight.” So ends a unique achievement—already recognized as one of the finest histories ever fashioned by an American—a narrative that re-creates on a vast and brilliant canvas the events and personalities of an American epic: the Civil War.

    Alongside Foote’s brilliant history, this boxed set contains American Homer: Reflections on Shelby Foote and His Classic Civil War: A Novel, edited by and with an introduction from Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Meacham, and including essays by Michael Beschloss, Ken Burns, Anette Gordon-Reed, and others.
    Shelby Foote was an American historian and novelist. He was born on November 7, 1916, in Greenville, Mississippi, and attended school there until he entered the University of North Carolina. During World War II he served as a captain of field artillery but never saw combat. After World War II he worked briefly for the Associated Press in their New York bureau. In 1953 he moved to Memphis, where he lived for the remainder of his life. Foote was the author of six novels: Tournament, Follow Me Down, Love in a Dry Season, Shiloh, Jordan County, and September, September. He is best remembered for his 3-volume history The Civil War: A Narrative, which took twenty years to complete and resulted in his being a featured expert in Ken Burns' acclaimed PBS documentary, The Civil War. Over the course of his writing career, Foote was also awarded three Guggenheim fellowships. Shelby Foote died in 2005 at the age of 88. View titles by Shelby Foote
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    “Here, for a certainty, is one of the great historical narratives of our century, a unique and brilliant achievement, one that must be firmly placed in the ranks of the masters.”—Van Allen Bradley, Chicago Daily News
     
    “A stunning book full of color, life, character and a new atmosphere of the Civil War, and at the same time a narrative of unflagging power. Eloquent proof that an historian should be a writer above all else.”—Burke Davis
     
    “This is historical writing at its best. . . . It can hardly be surpassed.”—Library Journal

    “Anyone who wants to relive the Civil War, as thousands of Americans apparently do, will go through this volume with pleasure. . . . Years from now, Foote’s monumental narrative most likely will continue to be read and remembered as a classic of its kind.”—New York Herald Tribune Book Review
     
    “To read this great narrative is to love the nation—to love it through the living knowledge of its mortal division. Whitman, who ultimately knew and loved the bravery and frailty of the soldiers, observed that the real Civil War would never be written and perhaps should not be. For me, Shelby Foote has written it. . . . This work was done to last forever.”—James M. Cox, Southern Review

    About

    A handsome boxed set of Shelby Foote’s three-volume masterpiece, selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best nonfiction books of all time—a comprehensive, extensively researched history of the Civil War, accompanied by American Homer: Reflections on Shelby Foote and His Classic Civil War

    “The writing is superb . . . one of the historical and literary achievements of our time.”—The Washington Post Book World

    In 1954, Random House publisher Bennett Cerf commissioned southern novelist Shelby Foote to write a short, one-volume history of the American Civil War. Thirty years and a million and a half words later—every word having been written out longhand with nib pens dipped into ink—Foote published the third and final volume of what has become the classic narrative of that epic war.

    Foote’s tremendous, sweeping narrative of the most fascinating conflict in our history—a war that lasted four long, bitter years, an experience more profound and meaningful than any other the American people have ever lived through—begins with Jefferson Davis’s resignation from the United States Senate and Abraham Lincoln’s departure from Springfield for the national capital. It is these two leaders, whose lives continually touch on the great chain of events throughout the story, who are only the first of scores of exciting personalities that in effect make The Civil War a multiple biography set against the crisis of an age.

    Four years later, Lincoln’s second inaugural sets the seal, invoking “charity for all” on the Eve of Five Forks and the Grant-Lee race for Appomattox. Here is the dust and stench of war, a sort of Twilight of the Gods. The epilogue is Lincoln in his grave, and Davis in his postwar existence—“Lucifer in Starlight.” So ends a unique achievement—already recognized as one of the finest histories ever fashioned by an American—a narrative that re-creates on a vast and brilliant canvas the events and personalities of an American epic: the Civil War.

    Alongside Foote’s brilliant history, this boxed set contains American Homer: Reflections on Shelby Foote and His Classic Civil War: A Novel, edited by and with an introduction from Pulitzer Prize winner Jon Meacham, and including essays by Michael Beschloss, Ken Burns, Anette Gordon-Reed, and others.

    Creators

    Shelby Foote was an American historian and novelist. He was born on November 7, 1916, in Greenville, Mississippi, and attended school there until he entered the University of North Carolina. During World War II he served as a captain of field artillery but never saw combat. After World War II he worked briefly for the Associated Press in their New York bureau. In 1953 he moved to Memphis, where he lived for the remainder of his life. Foote was the author of six novels: Tournament, Follow Me Down, Love in a Dry Season, Shiloh, Jordan County, and September, September. He is best remembered for his 3-volume history The Civil War: A Narrative, which took twenty years to complete and resulted in his being a featured expert in Ken Burns' acclaimed PBS documentary, The Civil War. Over the course of his writing career, Foote was also awarded three Guggenheim fellowships. Shelby Foote died in 2005 at the age of 88. View titles by Shelby Foote

    Praise

    “Here, for a certainty, is one of the great historical narratives of our century, a unique and brilliant achievement, one that must be firmly placed in the ranks of the masters.”—Van Allen Bradley, Chicago Daily News
     
    “A stunning book full of color, life, character and a new atmosphere of the Civil War, and at the same time a narrative of unflagging power. Eloquent proof that an historian should be a writer above all else.”—Burke Davis
     
    “This is historical writing at its best. . . . It can hardly be surpassed.”—Library Journal

    “Anyone who wants to relive the Civil War, as thousands of Americans apparently do, will go through this volume with pleasure. . . . Years from now, Foote’s monumental narrative most likely will continue to be read and remembered as a classic of its kind.”—New York Herald Tribune Book Review
     
    “To read this great narrative is to love the nation—to love it through the living knowledge of its mortal division. Whitman, who ultimately knew and loved the bravery and frailty of the soldiers, observed that the real Civil War would never be written and perhaps should not be. For me, Shelby Foote has written it. . . . This work was done to last forever.”—James M. Cox, Southern Review

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