American novelist and historian Shelby Foote (born 1916) is best known for his three-volume history of the Civil War. Envisioned as a one-volume work, Foote's effort grew into a monumental project that took two decades to complete.

Shelby Foote was born November 17, 1916, in Greenville, Mississippi, to Shelby Dade Foote, a business executive, and Lillian (Rosenstock) Foote. His father came from a long line of illustrious Mississippians. One of his ancestors, Isaac Shelby, was a frontier leader during the American Revolution and the first governor of Kentucky. His great-grandfather, Captain Hezekiah William Foote, fought for the Confederacy at Shiloh and went on to become a judge. His grandfather, Huger Lee Foote, was a Washington County planter who gambled away what would have been a substantial inheritance. His son, Shelby's father, was employed as an executive with Armour and Company. He died in 1922, when his son was almost six years old...