World War II and the Start of a Career
Back in Greenville and determined to write, Foote worked a series of odd jobs before Hodding Carter II, newspaper editor of the local Delta Star, offered him a position as copy editor. Foote accepted, but only half-heartedly fulfilled his newspaper duties. Instead, he channeled most of his energy into the draft of his first written novel, Tournament, which explored the fictionalized life and decline of Foote’s own paternal grandfather. Decidedly marked by Faulknerian overtones (in fact, Foote had first met his literary hero in June 1938), the novel takes place in Jordan County, modeled after Foote’s own Washington County and the locale of several subsequent works. An editor at Alfred A. Knopf praised the draft’s potential, but ultimately advised Foote to revise it and store it away until he had published other works.
World War II prevented Foote from brooding over this qualified rejection. In October 1939, Foote had enlisted in the Mississippi National Guard and in November of the following year, his “Dixie” Division was called into federal service. Although Foote distinguished himself in training camp and earned a promotion to captain, he was eventually court-martialed and dismissed from service while at base in Northern Ireland in 1944. He received this “Other than Honorable” discharge after driving a company Jeep just beyond the fifty-mile distance limit to visit his future first wife, Tess Lavery of Belfast. Months later, after Foote’s brief enlistment in the Marine Corps and the war’s end, the newlyweds settled in Greenville where Foote worked at a local radio station and enjoyed his first successes as a writer. In 1946 and 1947, the Saturday Evening Post published two of his short stories, prompting Foote to quit his job at the radio station in order to write full time. Recently divorced from Tess Lavery, Foote locked himself away in his Greenville residence and developed his regimented writing routine, producing four published novels between 1949 and 1952.
Against the previous advice of Knopf, Foote took Tournament to press first – publishing house Dial Press distributed the debut novel in 1949. Undeterred by the novel’s mediocre critical reception and poor sales, Foote released Follow Me Down – a Jordan County adaptation of a 1941 Greenville murder trial – the following year. Foote’s third novel based in Jordan County, Love in a Dry Season (1952), garnered the best reviews of the three works.
World War II prevented Foote from brooding over this qualified rejection. In October 1939, Foote had enlisted in the Mississippi National Guard and in November of the following year, his “Dixie” Division was called into federal service. Although Foote distinguished himself in training camp and earned a promotion to captain, he was eventually court-martialed and dismissed from service while at base in Northern Ireland in 1944. He received this “Other than Honorable” discharge after driving a company Jeep just beyond the fifty-mile distance limit to visit his future first wife, Tess Lavery of Belfast. Months later, after Foote’s brief enlistment in the Marine Corps and the war’s end, the newlyweds settled in Greenville where Foote worked at a local radio station and enjoyed his first successes as a writer. In 1946 and 1947, the Saturday Evening Post published two of his short stories, prompting Foote to quit his job at the radio station in order to write full time. Recently divorced from Tess Lavery, Foote locked himself away in his Greenville residence and developed his regimented writing routine, producing four published novels between 1949 and 1952.
Against the previous advice of Knopf, Foote took Tournament to press first – publishing house Dial Press distributed the debut novel in 1949. Undeterred by the novel’s mediocre critical reception and poor sales, Foote released Follow Me Down – a Jordan County adaptation of a 1941 Greenville murder trial – the following year. Foote’s third novel based in Jordan County, Love in a Dry Season (1952), garnered the best reviews of the three works.
Fascinated by war and frustrated by his own lack of battle experience, Foote turned somewhat naturally to Civil War fiction; after all, his own paternal great-grandfather had led the 1st Mississippi Cavalry into the 1862 Battle of Shiloh.
But the 1952 publication of Shiloh – in time for the battle’s ninetieth anniversary – marked the height of Foote’s fiction career both in terms of sales and reviews. Fascinated by war and frustrated by his own lack of battle experience, Foote turned somewhat naturally to Civil War fiction; after all, his own paternal great-grandfather had led the 1st Mississippi Cavalry into the 1862 Battle of Shiloh. Alternating the chapters between the fictional voices of Confederate and Union soldiers, Foote vividly presented the bloody campaign and introduced themes that would later mark his Narrative and the Burns’s series. For instance, Foote casually omitted any reference to slavery or even to the political climate of the divided nation. Instead, he framed the war as a struggle between courageous, ideologically aligned brothers, tragically doomed to largescale fratricide. Revealing his deep admiration for Nathan Bedford Forrest, moreover, Foote presented the controversial Confederate lieutenant general as the hero of the novel, proactive in his battle tactics and fearless in action. Foote’s understanding of the war in Shiloh proved popular with both readers and critics, selling more than six thousand copies in its first few months on the shelf and even earning the praise of William Faulkner.