''Andersonville'' is a
novel by
MacKinlay Kantor
MacKinlay Kantor (February 4, 1904 – October 11, 1977), born Benjamin McKinlay Kantor, was an American journalist, novelist and screenwriter. He wrote more than 30 novels, several set during the American Civil War, and was awarded th ...
concerning the
Confederate
Confederacy or confederate may refer to:
States or communities
* Confederate state or confederation, a union of sovereign groups or communities
* Confederate States of America, a confederation of secessionist American states that existed between 1 ...
prisoner of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of w ...
camp
Andersonville prison during the
American Civil War
The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states ...
(1861–1865). The novel was originally published in 1955, and won the
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction the following year.
Plot summary
The novel interweaves the stories of real and fictional characters. It is told from many points of view, including that of
Henry Wirz
Henry Wirz (born Hartmann Heinrich Wirz, November 25, 1823 – November 10, 1865) was a Swiss-American officer of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was the commandant of the stockade of Camp Sumter, a Confederate pri ...
, the camp commandant, who was later executed. It also features William Collins, a
Union
Union commonly refers to:
* Trade union, an organization of workers
* Union (set theory), in mathematics, a fundamental operation on sets
Union may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Music
* Union (band), an American rock group
** ''Un ...
soldier and one of the leaders of the "Raiders". The "Raiders" are a gang of thugs, mainly bounty jumpers who steal from their fellow prisoners and lead comfortable lives while other prisoners die of starvation and disease. Other characters include numerous ordinary prisoners of war, the camp physician/doctor, a nearby plantation owner, guards and Confederate civilians in the area near the prison.
''Andersonville'' is clearly based on prisoner memoirs, most notably ''Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons'' by
John McElroy. Henry Wirz, who received an injury earlier in the war and never recovered properly, is portrayed not as an inhuman fiend but as a sick man struggling with a job beyond his capacities.
Kantor's novel was not the basis for a 1996
John Frankenheimer
John Michael Frankenheimer (February 19, 1930 – July 6, 2002) was an American film and television director known for social dramas and action/suspense films. Among his credits were ''Birdman of Alcatraz'' (1962), '' The Manchurian Candidate'' ( ...
film ''
Andersonville''. Although Kantor did sell the motion picture rights of his novel to one of the major Hollywood studios in the 1950s, it was never produced. Kantor's novel and the movie of the same name are two separate properties.
Characters in ''Andersonville''
Historical figures who appear as characters in the novel include:
*
Henry Wirz
Henry Wirz (born Hartmann Heinrich Wirz, November 25, 1823 – November 10, 1865) was a Swiss-American officer of the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War. He was the commandant of the stockade of Camp Sumter, a Confederate pri ...
(Confederate, camp commandant)
*
John McElroy (Union prisoner, future memoir writer)
*
William Collins (Union prisoner, "Raider" leader executed by fellow prisoners)
*
Boston Corbett
Thomas H. "Boston" Corbett (January 29, 1832 – presumed dead September 1, 1894) was an American Union Army soldier who shot and killed U.S. president Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth. Corbett was initially arrested for disob ...
(Union prisoner, future killer of
John Wilkes Booth
John Wilkes Booth (May 10, 1838 – April 26, 1865) was an American stage actor who assassinated United States President Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., on April 14, 1865. A member of the prominent 19th-century Booth ...
)
*
John Winder (Confederate general in charge of prisoners-of-war)
* John L. Ransom (1843-1919) (Union prisoner), a printer from
Jackson, Michigan, who kept a detailed diary of his capture, imprisonment, and escape. This was published as ''Andersonville Diary''.
*
Robert Hall Chilton (Confederate Inspector General in Richmond who received reports from Field Surgeons, and consequently wondered, in print, about the judgment of history if the abominations at Andersonville remained uncorrected)
Criticism
The novel was frequently challenged by school board members due to its use of vulgar and obscene language. in 1967, the father of an
Amherst High School student claimed that the book was "1 percent history and 99 percent filth" and could not be read by his daughter and called for the dismissal of the teacher who had assigned the book to her class; It was later decided not to remove the book from the optional reading list.
''Andersonville'' was also banned from four
Amarillo, Texas
Amarillo ( ; Spanish for "yellow") is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the seat of Potter County. It is the 14th-most populous city in Texas and the largest city in the Texas Panhandle. A portion of the city extends into Randall County ...
high schools and
Amarillo College
Amarillo College (AC) is a public community college in Amarillo, Texas. It enrolls over 10,000 students and was established in 1929 as Amarillo Junior College. Amarillo College has a total of six campuses as of October 2005.
As defined by the ...
.
References
Bibliography
Commager, Henry Steele. "The Last Full Measure of Devotion: A Novel of an Infamous Prison in the Civil War", ''The New York Times Book Review''. Oct. 30, 1955. VII, p. 1.
Cullen, Jim. ''The Civil War in Popular Culture''. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington: 1995.
Hesseltine, William B. "Andersonville Revisited." ''The Georgia Review'', 1956, p 92-100.
Kantor, Mackinlay. "The Last Full Measure of Devotion: The Author Tells How He Relived the Tragedy", ''The New York Times Book Review''. Oct. 30, 1955. VII, p. 1.
Kantor, Mackinlay, ''Andersonville''. Penguin Books USA, Inc., New York : 1955.
Poore, Charles. "Andersonville (Review)." ''The New York Times''. Oct. 27, 1955, p. 31:4.
Stuckey, W. J. ''The Pulitzer Prize Novels : A Critical Backward Look''. University of Oklahoma Press, Norman: 1981.
External links
Photos of the first edition of ''Andersonville''
{{PulitzerPrize Fiction 1951–1975
1955 American novels
Novels set during the American Civil War
Pulitzer Prize for Fiction-winning works
Novels set in Georgia (U.S. state)
Macon County, Georgia
Novels about prisoners of war