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Gone: A Photographic Plea for Preservation
Photographer and architect Nell Dickerson began her exploration of antebellum homesteads with encouragement from her cousin-in-law, renowned Civil War historian and novelist Shelby Foote. Her passion for forgotten and neglected buildings became a plea for preservation.
Gone is a unique pairing of modern photographs and historical novella. Foote offers a heartbreaking look at one man's loss as Union troops burn his home in the last days of the Civil War. Dickerson shares fascinating and haunting photographs, shining a poignant light on the buildings which survived Sherman's burning rampage across the Confederacy, only to fall victim to neglect, apathy and poverty.
GONE is a powerfully moving volume that will change how you see the forgotten buildings that hide in obscurity across the Southern landscape. 77 color illustrations
118 pages, Hardcover
First published March 28, 2011
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Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews
March 30, 2011
What hauntingly gorgeous photographs depicting an era lost to us. How appropriate for the 150th anniversary of the Civil War in the United States. I love the area of the state of Mississippi along the great river of the same name. A few years ago as I rode up Highway 61 just north of Vicksburg through mist shrouded fields at dawn I imagined I was communing with the souls of the civil war soldiers as they woke to the dawn thinking of the battles ahead. And yes I felt a great loss as these beautiful photographs portray.
And while the photographs are startling yet beautiful, the novella by Shelby Foote that accompanies the photographs while fiction still resonates with truth. Your house has been selected to burn, you have twenty minutes, Edward is told by a Union officer on Page 91. While many homes and buildings were burnt by the Union soldiers as they triumphantly marched through the South that they had beaten down, many of the homes and buildings such as churches that did remain standing are now falling into ruin and are beyond restoration. This book vividly captures those images. This book will haunt my thoughts for some time.
Highly recommend this book.
And while the photographs are startling yet beautiful, the novella by Shelby Foote that accompanies the photographs while fiction still resonates with truth. Your house has been selected to burn, you have twenty minutes, Edward is told by a Union officer on Page 91. While many homes and buildings were burnt by the Union soldiers as they triumphantly marched through the South that they had beaten down, many of the homes and buildings such as churches that did remain standing are now falling into ruin and are beyond restoration. This book vividly captures those images. This book will haunt my thoughts for some time.
Highly recommend this book.
April 15, 2012
Wow - my passions all rolled into one book! I'm in heaven. The photography is captivating. I too take pictures of old delapidated buildings and collect others work. I find them facinating - who lived there, why did it fall into ruins, what became of the family - the questions never stop.
The essay adds to the book and I'm just starting to read it, but I had to look at ALL of the pictures first. They just keep calling me back. I can imagine these structures in their glory days or infamous times. A picture is worth a 1,000 words and even without reading the book - I'm enthralled.
I recieved this as an e-book through the LibraryThing Early reviewers program and would love to find a print copy - it would definitely be on my coffee table!
Looking forward to more work by Nell Dickerson!
The essay adds to the book and I'm just starting to read it, but I had to look at ALL of the pictures first. They just keep calling me back. I can imagine these structures in their glory days or infamous times. A picture is worth a 1,000 words and even without reading the book - I'm enthralled.
I recieved this as an e-book through the LibraryThing Early reviewers program and would love to find a print copy - it would definitely be on my coffee table!
Looking forward to more work by Nell Dickerson!
April 1, 2011
What is the value of a story? Our story? That is the question at the heart of the book “Gone: A photographic Plea for Preservation”. Whilst the question addressed in the book is a little more specifically angled, at its core the message is about the value of our collective stories. “Gone” is a photographic essay entwined with a short story about the Civil War fought in the United States of America in the 1860s.
The photos depict the ruins of buildings and houses that have fallen into a dilapidated state over the many decades since the events took place. The images themselves have been shot with care and reverence. The reader is taken through a journey into rooms that lie crumbling, or walks between columns wondering what has happened to the rest of the house. The images are saturated in mood and whilst they make you feel alone and silent among the ruins, you can almost hear the ghostly sounds of what may once have been. The images beg questions and stories begin to form in one’s mind.
Contrasted with the lengthy process of decay depicted in the images, the short story narrates the life of one southern dweller as it revolves around his home and the speedy end it receives in flames. The reader, having lived through important family events in that house feels the utter futility, destruction and sadness that it is to see it all end so quickly. It is easy to feel this way about the acts of the long-dead soldiers in the story, but as a society are we just as bad for not actively preserving the symbols of our heritage?
The book clearly states its aim is to compel people to want to preserve their southern heritage. I believe it does a fine job. I can see this book making people want to ask questions – to learn more about history, to visit these sites, to tell relatives and maybe, just maybe to inspire action. In any case it will help to perpetuate the story. As an Australian, it has piqued my interest in the Civil War and southern culture. Whilst it may not be part of my direct heritage, it is part of my collective human heritage. And this is important.
The photos depict the ruins of buildings and houses that have fallen into a dilapidated state over the many decades since the events took place. The images themselves have been shot with care and reverence. The reader is taken through a journey into rooms that lie crumbling, or walks between columns wondering what has happened to the rest of the house. The images are saturated in mood and whilst they make you feel alone and silent among the ruins, you can almost hear the ghostly sounds of what may once have been. The images beg questions and stories begin to form in one’s mind.
Contrasted with the lengthy process of decay depicted in the images, the short story narrates the life of one southern dweller as it revolves around his home and the speedy end it receives in flames. The reader, having lived through important family events in that house feels the utter futility, destruction and sadness that it is to see it all end so quickly. It is easy to feel this way about the acts of the long-dead soldiers in the story, but as a society are we just as bad for not actively preserving the symbols of our heritage?
The book clearly states its aim is to compel people to want to preserve their southern heritage. I believe it does a fine job. I can see this book making people want to ask questions – to learn more about history, to visit these sites, to tell relatives and maybe, just maybe to inspire action. In any case it will help to perpetuate the story. As an Australian, it has piqued my interest in the Civil War and southern culture. Whilst it may not be part of my direct heritage, it is part of my collective human heritage. And this is important.
June 13, 2011
Combining two of my loves, history and photography, this book is amazing.
It combines stunning photographs of antebellum homesteads in the Mississippi captured by Nell Dickerson with the history of the Civil War told by Shelby Foote.
Seeing the stunning photos, the history comes alive and transports you back to the civil war between the North and South.
This book tells of homesteads burning and the effect it has on the owners, slaves as well as the soldier themselves.
I had never read anything by Shelby Foote before but after reading Gone, I will track down his other books: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
It combines stunning photographs of antebellum homesteads in the Mississippi captured by Nell Dickerson with the history of the Civil War told by Shelby Foote.
Seeing the stunning photos, the history comes alive and transports you back to the civil war between the North and South.
This book tells of homesteads burning and the effect it has on the owners, slaves as well as the soldier themselves.
I had never read anything by Shelby Foote before but after reading Gone, I will track down his other books: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...
January 7, 2012
A photographic essay on decaying, barely-there antebellum homes in the Mississippi River valley set against a short story of the Civil War by Shelby Foote. This is one of the most interesting books I've seen in a while. A quick read, and highly recommended for lovers of Civil War fiction, photography, and historic preservation.
May 2, 2012
A passion for place and human history written on the landscape. Beautiful images of forgotten history drifting into the shadows of time.
August 12, 2012
Gorgeous, heartbreaking photos by Nell Dickerson, along with Shelby Foote's narration. Talk about the dynamic duo! Well done.
September 17, 2020
I enjoyed the photography and the cause/concept behind the book, as well as the forward material by Robert Hicks. Historical information to be found, along with Shelby Foote's 'Pillars of Fire' a story from the Civil War.
March 3, 2020
This book combines photographs of dilapidated decayed antebellum houses and buildings with “Pillars of Fire”, a short story by the late Shelby Foote. Occasioned by the sesquicentennial of the start of the Civil War, the book by preservationist (and cousin to Foote) Nell Dickerson is a call for efforts to preserve the architectural heritage of the south. The photographs depict mostly buildings beyond recovery and it might have been more encouraging to show some that can still be saved. Several buildings evidence damage incurred during actions in the war, but their decay is due to neglect in the years since. I have personally restored two 19th century homes and know the importance of preservation to our history.
I have read Foote’s marvelous three-volume narrative history of the war and enjoyed his commentary on the Ken Burns’ documentary. I had not read any of his fiction before this story. Foote is a wonderful writer whose ability to evoke the atmosphere and sense of the times makes his storytelling so captivating. He writes about the life of Isaac Jameson who came to the Mississippi territory before its statehood in the early 1800’s. Isaac’s early life is one of wildness and dissipation, but well into adulthood he was inspired to possess land (recently expropriated from the Choctaw nation by the US) to begin an agricultural life. He converts this wild land to a plantation and becomes Foote’s exemplar of the southern aristocracy. His marriage past the age of fifty to a much younger woman completes his transformation to gentility. Foote uses Isaac’s story to tell the history of the rise of the Southern plantation system, but he does not gloss over its troubling aspects: the treatment of Native Americans, the reliance on slavery and the arrogant sense of entitlement of the white planters. The story opens with the arrival of a Federal army detachment whose job is to suppress partisan activity in the region. Led by Colonel Frisbie, a man embittered by the war (and his failings in it), the unit’s method of retaliation is to select a home to burn down. Young Lt. Lundy is sent into the home to give warning to the occupants. He encounters Isaac and a few slaves, who are all that’s left of the once-flourishing estate. Isaac is well into his nineties and is a desiccated shell of his former vitality and robustness. He is a metaphor for all that has been lost of Southern plantation life. He has recently been affected by strokes and has aphasia where his intended speech comes out garbled and nearly unintelligible. This excellent device shows what has happened to all that once was. Isaac is able to convey to Lundy that the way of life that was started by fire will end in fire. And it does.
The story is a powerful one not only for its sense of the consequences of personal morality. Isaac was not a uniquely evil man; he represents the entire Southern planter ethic. The Federal characters, except Lundy, are depicted no more sympathetically than their Southern foes; they are hardened by the war and cruel in pursuing it. Foote tells us that societies are destined to reap what they sow through the large and irresistible forces of history. It makes one wonder if the circumstances that propelled the country ultimately to civil war could have been diverted or what would it have taken to do so. Perhaps Dickerson‘s message in showing us the buildings we are losing is that by allowing this loss we risk losing the lessons of our history, too.
A word about the format of this book. It was an e-book and I found navigating through it extremely hard. The print type had to be enlarged to read it which made the photos hard to follow. Perhaps it was my ineptness with the computer, but a hard copy would have been more enjoyable.
I have read Foote’s marvelous three-volume narrative history of the war and enjoyed his commentary on the Ken Burns’ documentary. I had not read any of his fiction before this story. Foote is a wonderful writer whose ability to evoke the atmosphere and sense of the times makes his storytelling so captivating. He writes about the life of Isaac Jameson who came to the Mississippi territory before its statehood in the early 1800’s. Isaac’s early life is one of wildness and dissipation, but well into adulthood he was inspired to possess land (recently expropriated from the Choctaw nation by the US) to begin an agricultural life. He converts this wild land to a plantation and becomes Foote’s exemplar of the southern aristocracy. His marriage past the age of fifty to a much younger woman completes his transformation to gentility. Foote uses Isaac’s story to tell the history of the rise of the Southern plantation system, but he does not gloss over its troubling aspects: the treatment of Native Americans, the reliance on slavery and the arrogant sense of entitlement of the white planters. The story opens with the arrival of a Federal army detachment whose job is to suppress partisan activity in the region. Led by Colonel Frisbie, a man embittered by the war (and his failings in it), the unit’s method of retaliation is to select a home to burn down. Young Lt. Lundy is sent into the home to give warning to the occupants. He encounters Isaac and a few slaves, who are all that’s left of the once-flourishing estate. Isaac is well into his nineties and is a desiccated shell of his former vitality and robustness. He is a metaphor for all that has been lost of Southern plantation life. He has recently been affected by strokes and has aphasia where his intended speech comes out garbled and nearly unintelligible. This excellent device shows what has happened to all that once was. Isaac is able to convey to Lundy that the way of life that was started by fire will end in fire. And it does.
The story is a powerful one not only for its sense of the consequences of personal morality. Isaac was not a uniquely evil man; he represents the entire Southern planter ethic. The Federal characters, except Lundy, are depicted no more sympathetically than their Southern foes; they are hardened by the war and cruel in pursuing it. Foote tells us that societies are destined to reap what they sow through the large and irresistible forces of history. It makes one wonder if the circumstances that propelled the country ultimately to civil war could have been diverted or what would it have taken to do so. Perhaps Dickerson‘s message in showing us the buildings we are losing is that by allowing this loss we risk losing the lessons of our history, too.
A word about the format of this book. It was an e-book and I found navigating through it extremely hard. The print type had to be enlarged to read it which made the photos hard to follow. Perhaps it was my ineptness with the computer, but a hard copy would have been more enjoyable.
April 24, 2011
This e-book was received from LibraryThing through their Early Reviewers program.
On the eve of the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War, as many citizens are discussing this important event in the history of the United States; we are asked to take a look back and consider what we can do to preserve the old buildings from this period of our country’s past.
This book combines the outstanding photographs of Nell Dickerson with a wonderful story “Pillar of Fire” by her cousin-by-marriage, Shelby Foote, about a Southerner’s house being burnt to the ground by a troop of Union soldiers.
As an amateur photographer, this book has a special place in my heart. The startlingly beautiful photographs depict old southern mansions that even though they are slowly decomposing are magnificent in their decay.
Through the story we follow the destruction that was perpetrated against one family’s home and we, the reader can see at the same time, this devastation reflected in the accompanying images.
The fusion of the narrative with the pictorial illustrations moves the reader in a very poignant way. This book is highly recommended.
On the eve of the sesquicentennial of the American Civil War, as many citizens are discussing this important event in the history of the United States; we are asked to take a look back and consider what we can do to preserve the old buildings from this period of our country’s past.
This book combines the outstanding photographs of Nell Dickerson with a wonderful story “Pillar of Fire” by her cousin-by-marriage, Shelby Foote, about a Southerner’s house being burnt to the ground by a troop of Union soldiers.
As an amateur photographer, this book has a special place in my heart. The startlingly beautiful photographs depict old southern mansions that even though they are slowly decomposing are magnificent in their decay.
Through the story we follow the destruction that was perpetrated against one family’s home and we, the reader can see at the same time, this devastation reflected in the accompanying images.
The fusion of the narrative with the pictorial illustrations moves the reader in a very poignant way. This book is highly recommended.
March 30, 2011
Gone: A Photographic Plea for Preservation is a selection of photographs of antebellum structures which in some way, some as limited as columns, survived the American Civil War but have since fallen into disrepair. The photographs are presented in tandem with the short story, " Pillar of Fire" by Shelby Foote. While the story is a nice read on its own, the photographs selected for each page of the text makes it seem like the story was telling the history of these particular structures, even though the story was written nearly 50 years prior. The photographs on their own are stunning and worth looking through for anyone interested in antebellum architecture. My biggest wish would have been more captioning of the photographs like the photographer's notes, as the history and battle scars of these structures is fascinating in their own right.
I received this book from the author for review.
I received this book from the author for review.
July 20, 2013
Brilliant! I had so been wanting to read this book from 2011 and was so happy to have found it on the shelves of my local library. It is full of photos of antebellum homes in Mississippi and western Tennessee, that although they escaped burning in the end years of the Civil War, have fallen into disrepair by neglect. The photographer is a cousin of Shelby Foote, the acclaimed Civil War historian and author. The book along with the photographs contains the short story by Foote, entitled "Pillar of Fire," which was a portion of his Jordan County book. The story fills you so up with the nature of a home and the lifetime of memories that such a home contains, only to be burned down with minutes or neglected over several lifetimes, never preserving the structure itself or the family history and memories. I love this book, although it greatly saddened me.
April 10, 2011
Civil War events throughout Mississippi and Tennessee are beautifully recounted through Shelby Foote’s words and Nell Dickerson’s uniquely powerful photography. Indeed, it is an effort not to hear the creaking boards of the structural remains as you peer in to the homes, leaves crackling under foot. In this visual record from Memphis to Natchez and beyond, the fragility of the beauty and elegance of what once was, is profiled in sharp contrast to what remains or has fallen to period marauders, vandals, and natural events such as Katrina. This breathtaking tribute and plea to protect history and preserve culture provides a present-day opportunity to stroll in the past, invoking its relevance while questioning what we may glean. An unbiased review of a LibraryThing Early Reviewer gift.
May 1, 2011
I won this in a giveaway at library thing. I received an electronic copy. The photography is outstanding. Haunting pictures of once beautiful homes from the Civil War era now standing in ruin and decay. The book is a plea for preservation. Many homes have been restored and those pictured are beyond restoring. A short essay by Shelby Foote cousin of the photographer that fits in with the story. It is the kind of book that you look at the pictures and dream what it must have been like for the people who lived in those homes. Those that the Yankees burned and those that were abandoned. All in all a very nice book.
January 20, 2013
GONE is a beautiful book of photographs of antebellum buildings in ruins throughout the Cotton Country of the Mississippi River. The award-winning photographer, who is the niece of Civil War novelist Shelby Foote, has paired the images with a stand-alone chapter "Pillar of Fire" from Foote's novel Jordan County.
Every time I look at Nell’s images, I feel the decay and abandonment in the Old South (I grew up in Memphis).
We're in the heart of the Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War (2011-2015), a time of commemoration of this country's greatest national crisis. Nell's book is timely.
Every time I look at Nell’s images, I feel the decay and abandonment in the Old South (I grew up in Memphis).
We're in the heart of the Sesquicentennial of the American Civil War (2011-2015), a time of commemoration of this country's greatest national crisis. Nell's book is timely.
December 5, 2013
I picked up this book because I love houses, especially old houses because they have stories within their walls. Mr. Foote's story was the perfect complement to the photos of someone's ancestral homes. Ms. Dickerson's preservation creed: "Honor your past, protect your history, respect your ancestors and preserve your own culture" voices my own desire to keep my family story alive. We can learn so much about our past by examining the places of daily living. It's probably why we ask, "Where are you from?" when we first meet someone. Preserving where we are from may help us to understand ourselves today.
October 20, 2011
Beautiful photographs of Civil War buildings that are beyond repair. Gives your imagination to run wild thinking of the families that lived in them, what their hey day was like, the stories that happened between those walls.
The story follows a father and son.
I wish their would have been more detail noted on the photographs though. If there would have been more investigation into who or what the building was rather than just a location.
The story follows a father and son.
I wish their would have been more detail noted on the photographs though. If there would have been more investigation into who or what the building was rather than just a location.
September 4, 2012
This is pretty much a "coffee table book" comprised of a series of beautiful pictures of abandoned and decaying 150 year old structures primarily in Mississippi. Also included is a short story by Civil War historian Shelby Foote regarding the burning of a Southerner planter's mansion by Federal troops and an appeal by photographer Nell Dickerson to keep historical structures from abandonment and neglect.
December 1, 2011
Nothing fills me with more dramatic melancholy than the sight of an old, abandoned house. It's truly a sense of "If only these walls could talk..."
A stunning, sad collection of Southern ruins, underscored with the beautiful narrative voice of Shelby Foote (who makes non-fiction read like fiction-- in the best sense of that word).
A stunning, sad collection of Southern ruins, underscored with the beautiful narrative voice of Shelby Foote (who makes non-fiction read like fiction-- in the best sense of that word).
January 3, 2016
The photography was beautiful. However, I felt the book to be shallow. Most buildings only had one photograph and included very little, if any, historical information. I would have preferred a more in depth study of the homes, including multiple shots of each property along with the history of the building to help the reader feel what life was like in the building.
April 22, 2011
See my review on LibraryThing.com LCB48
January 29, 2012
I thought there would be more on preservation.
December 22, 2012
Loved it.
November 4, 2013
The photos are lovely but it is the pairing of those photos with a story written by renowned author Shelby Foote which brings true meaning to those pictures.
Displaying 1 - 24 of 24 reviews