The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant "are well observed, often
humorous, invariably charming, penetrating and lucid. On every page, his
narrative has the simple directness of the finest English prose." Robert
McCrum, The Guardian.
The Personal Memoirs, **"**perhaps the most widely acclaimed of all
American memoirs" (The New York Times) have equal value as history and
as literature and are so beautifully written that at first many believed
that it was the work of Grant's friend, Mark Twain.
The Personal Memoirs cover President Grant's life including his seven
years of poverty as a hardscrabble farmer just before joining the Union
Army. They record his recollections of the Civil War and Reconstruction,
expressing his sadness at the defeat of the South: "[I felt] sad and
depressed ... at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and
valiantly, though the cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which
people have fought." As a war hero, widely credited as the General who
"saved the Union." he was easily elected President in 1868 in the first
Presidential election after the civil war and was re-elected in 1872.
During his tenure, he oversaw the forceful prosecution of the Ku Klux
Klan, the promotion of African American rights and Native American
rights and safety, and the appointment of minorities to high
governmental positions.
In 1884 Grant was diagnosed with throat cancer, and, having been
swindled out of his savings, he embarked on The Personal Memoirs to
provide for his wife's financial future*.* Mark Twain, aware of Grant's
financial straits, published the work under very generous terms. The
book, completed in the month before Grant's death, was a huge financial
success, with his widow receiving the largest royalty check to date.
Critic Edmund Wilson, ranking Grant with Walt Whitman and Henry Thoreau,
believes writing that this powerful autobiography is "a unique
expression of the national character. [Grant] has conveyed the
suspense which was felt by himself and his army and by all who believed
in the Union cause. The reader finds himself on edge to know how the
civil war is coming out."
Robert McCrum concludes in The Guardian: "Throughout this very
substantial autobiography, like the great man he was, Grant is supremely
generous to his enemies, loyal to his friends and associates, and always
devoted to another civil war hero, his president, Abraham Lincoln. The
overall effect is both intimate and majestic."
Read it for a gripping eyewitness account of the Civil War and
Reconstruction.
