“One of the most unflinching studies of war in our literature.” –William McFeeleyAmong the autobiographies of great military figures, Ulysses S. Grant’s is certainly one of the finest, and it is arguably the most notable literary achievement of any American president: a lucid, compelling, and brutally honest chronicle of triumph and failure. From his frontier boyhood to his heroics in battle to … heroics in battle to the grinding poverty from which the Civil War ironically “rescued” him, these memoirs are a mesmerizing, deeply moving account of a brilliant man, told with great courage as he reflects on the fortunes that shaped his life and his character. Written under excruciating circumstances (as Grant was dying of throat cancer), encouraged and edited from its very inception by Mark Twain, it is a triumph of the art of autobiography.
The books in the Modern Library War series have been chosen by series editor Caleb Carr according to the significance of their subject matter, their contribution to the field of military history, and their literary merit.
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When he became President, Ulysses S. Grant lost his army pension. After the Presidency, he went into business with his son. They became caught up in a Ponzi scheme. Grant not only lost everything, he was deeply in debt. Then he was diagnosed with terminal throat cancer– all those cigars. He didn’t want to leave his wife destitute so he agreed to Mark Twain’s long standing request to write his memoirs. BTW– in my book Duty, Honor, Country, I have a scene where a young Mark Twain is in the Confederate army in Florida MO (where he was born), ready to defend it against an advancing Union column led by: U.S. Grant in his first command. There was no fight, but the two were linked ever afterward. Twain carried a copy of Grant’s Unconditional Surrender letter from Fort Donelson in his pocket all his life.
So Grant wrote his memoirs, finishing just days before his death, Twain published it, and it became the highest selling nonfiction book of the 19th Century.
It’s a fascinating from the mind of a most incredible man.
Grant’s two best subjects at my alma mater, West Point, were math and art. A unique combination. He was also a horse whisperer.
Unfortunately I decided to read this after Chernow praising it in his masterful biography of Grant. This book might be unequaled on its description of the tactics and strategy used in the Civil War, but not much else if that doesn’t interest you.
If you are an American and, have studied some USA history, you would know who General U. S. Grant was, and the impact upon the Civil War, that he had. However, until I personally read this book, I had no real idea of his brilliance, as a General, for the Northern Army. Nor, was I really aware, that he was educated at West Point. The one fact this book brings out, throughout its whole story, is the brilliance of this man, as he:
1. Move troops around, to fill needs as well as prepare for battle;
2. His brilliance in devising and carrying out specific strategy, to meet the needs, as required, to be successful, in battle;
3. His ability to focus on what needed to be done and, when;
4. And, much more.
In my estimation, a book well worth reading.