Grant's style is plain, his background modest, his stories often self-deprecating, and he largely focuses on what he knows best: the details and decisions of the Civil War battles in which he participated. Grant tells a story of recovered nationalism. No less than novels, poems, and speeches-or for that matter memorials, paintings, and pageants- Personal Memoirs of U. As Nina Silber has argued, post–Civil War literature advanced the cause of sectional reconciliation. Personal Memoirs is critical of slavery, secession, and romantic Southern accounts of the war, but it also makes a strong case for national unity, calling for forgiveness and either de-emphasizing or vindicating some of the most divisive aspects of the war. In doing so, Grant participated in a broader cultural effort to heal (or perhaps more accurately to repress) sectional differences that, as David Blight shows, survived beyond the Civil War. As opposed to his presidential farewell address, which tried to explain in apologetic tones the scandals that plagued his administration, Grant's memoirs focus on the war experiences that made him a hero of American history. Twain, Gertrude Stein, and a grudging Matthew Arnold appreciated the literary qualities of the book. Grant did much more than secure Grant's financial legacy. In economic terms, the book was a triumph, selling 300,000 copies in the first two years and earning $450,000, more than enough to cover Grant's debts and guarantee his family's wellbeing. 1117).Īs with many of his Civil War battles, Grant's sacrifice was a hard-won success. Indeed, as Elizabeth Samet has emphasized, the strain of finishing the project may have hastened Grant's demise, for he called the work of writing his life "adding to my book and to my coffin" (Samet, p. Grant spent less than a year composing his lengthy memoirs and with the public tracking his decline, he died just a few weeks after completing the manuscript. His friend Mark Twain (1835–1910) published the book and offered him a favorable book contract his sons served as research assistants stenographers took down his dictation until speaking became too painful and cocaine (used medicinally at the time) brought temporary energy and relief. Working feverishly from his home in Mount McGregor, New York, Grant found support on a number of fronts. For years Grant had declined to write his memoirs despite interest from publishers and the public but as his health declined, he took up the task, initially writing four articles for the Century magazine series, Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, and later agreeing to write a book that became Personal Memoirs of U. Sixty-two-year-old Grant was also diagnosed with fatal throat cancer, leaving him little time to clear his debts and return his family to financial security. THE CONTEXTĪfter stepping down as president, traveling the world, and seemingly settling toward retirement, Grant fell victim to bad investments run by his son and a fraudulent business partner. What caused Grant to become not simply a memoirist but one of the most successful memoirists of his day? As with so many of his achievements, necessity and circumstance figured heavily. More known for his reticence than for his eloquence, he was often depicted as a cigar-chewing stoic rather than a leader who expressed himself publicly. Yet for all his fame, Grant was a private man not given to literary pursuits. In America during the late nineteenth century, many celebrated figures wrote autobiographies, and many Civil War heroes less prominent than Grant published memoirs to great acclaim. By the end of the war, Grant was the highest-ranking general of the victorious Union army and he rode his immense popularity to two terms as president of the United States (1868–1876). Grant (1822–1885) wrote a Civil War memoir. It is both fitting and surprising that Ulysses S.
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