It was just reported that Horton Foote has died at 92. He would have
been 93 a week from Saturday. The New York Times is about to post a
complete obituary.
    It won't really be complete, of course, because Horton lived an
incredibly full life and was revising works right until the end.
    There probably won't be a mention of "The Shape of the River," his
"Playhouse 90" drama about Mark Twain. Those of you who saw this
incredible three-act television production at the last Elmira conference
know just how powerful and ahead of its time it was.
    Mark Twain was one of the principal reasons Horton Foote became a
writer. He carried a deep love of Twain throughout his long life,
something he was always quick to acknowledge.
    The Times and other publications will note that Horton Foote won two
Academy Awards (one for adapting "To Kill a Mockingbird," the other for
his original screenplay "Tender Mercies"), an Emmy (for the TV movie
adaptation of William Faulkner's "Old Man") and a Pulitzer Prize (for
his play "The Young Man from Atlanta"). They will note that three
distinguished players won best acting Oscars in movies written by Horton
Foote: Gregory Peck in "To Kill a Mockingbird," Robert Duvall in "Tender
Mercies" and Geraldine Page in "The Trip to Bountiful."
    They will not, no matter how eloquently written, capture his
soft-spoken spirit or his uncompromising dedication to the craft of
writing. I wish like anything I had those words. But, as always, Horton
said it better . . . talking about Mark Twain:
    "You feel the authenticity of his works, and that had a profound
influence on me. He had a total sense of place."
    Those words also apply to Horton Foote.