Everything about Personal Memoirs Of Ulysses S Grant totally explained
The
Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant is an autobiography of
American President Ulysses S. Grant, focused mainly on the general's actions during the
American Civil War. Written as Grant was dying of
throat cancer in 1885, the two-volume set was published by
Mark Twain shortly after Grant's death. The memoirs were a financial and critical success and are still praised for their high literary qualities.
Background
After finishing his second term in office in 1877, Grant and his wife
Julia took a trip around the world which left him short on money. Nearly 60, the ex-president looked for something to engage his time. He ran for the Republican nomination for president in 1880, but lost to
James Garfield. The next year, Grant moved to New York City to go into business with his son,
Ulysses S. Grant, Jr., and a young investor,
Ferdinand Ward, described by his great-grandson
Geoffrey Ward as "a very plausible, charming, unobtrusive, slender person with a genius for finding older people and pleasing them, which he learned early on."
The firm of Grant & Ward did well at first, bolstered by Ward's skills and Grant's name. The former president bragged to friends that he was worth two and a half million dollars, and family members and friends poured money into the firm. But Grant was largely disengaged from the company's business, often signing papers without reading them.
Grant also makes asides to clear up legends that had grown up around his leadership. After dismissing one tale, Grant wrote "Like many other stories, it would be very good if it were only true."
The narrative ends shortly after the
Army of the Potomac's final review in Washington in May 1865. Grant deliberately avoids comment on
Reconstruction, apart from saying that he favored black suffrage. The final chapter, "Conclusion," is a reflection on the war and its effects, the actions of foreign countries during it, and the reconciliation of North and South. In the final paragraphs, Grant makes note of his own condition and expresses optimism that "Federal and Confederate" can live together.
I can't stay to be a living witness to the correctness of this prophecy; but I feel it within me that it's to be so. The universally kind feeling expressed for me at a time when it was supposed that each day would prove my last, seemed to me the beginning of the answer to "Let us have peace."
The expression of these kindly feelings were not restricted to a section of the country, nor to a division of the people. They came from individual citizens of all nationalities; from all denominations—the Protestant, the Catholic, and the Jew; and from the various societies of the land—scientific, educational, religious or otherwise. Politics didn't enter into the matter at all.
I am not egotist enough to suppose all this significance should be given because I was the object of it. But the war between the States was a very bloody and a very costly war. One side or the other had to yield principles they deemed dearer than life before it could be brought to an end. I commanded the whole of the mighty host engaged on the victorious side. I was, no matter whether deservedly so or not, a representative of that side of the controversy. It is a significant and gratifying fact that Confederates should have joined heartily in this spontaneous move. I hope the good feeling inaugurated may continue to the end.
Reaction
The press and public followed Grant's symptoms throughout his final year, and his work on the book was well-known. While interest in his Memoirs would have been high had Grant not been ill, his struggle to finish it before his death gave it even more attention.
After the death of Ulysses Grant, the Memoirs quickly became a best seller, and the Grants, who received 75 percent of the royalties, made $450,000 from the book, re-establishing their fortune.
The book also received universal critical praise. Twain compared the Memoirs to
Julius Caesar's
Commentaries.
Matthew Arnold praised Grant and his book in an 1886 essay. Twain, however, felt Arnold's tone was condescending to both Grant and the United States, and the two authors feuded until Arnold's death in 1888.
Gertrude Stein also admired the book, saying she couldn't think of Grant without weeping.
Mark Twain's opinion
"I had been comparing the memoirs with Caesar's Commentaries... I was able to say in all sincerity that the same high merits distinguished both books - clarity of statement, directness, simplicity, manifest truthfulness, fairness and justice toward friend and foe alike and avoidance of flowery speech. General Grant was just a man, just a human being, just an author...The fact remains and can't be dislodged that General Grant's book is a great, unique and unapproachable literary masterpiece. There is no higher literature than these modest, simple Memoirs. Their style is at least flawless, and no man can improve upon it."
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