#Ulysses s grant autobiography series#

Its success would have surprised no one more than Grant. It was the first published memoir by a president that made an impact.' 'It was a point of pride that the family clung to for generations - still do, I suppose,' said Dietz.īrands called Grant's memoir 'the first really successful celebrity memoir in American history. 'The memoirs brought in ultimately something like $400,000 in cash, which is millions and millions of dollars today,' said Ulysses Grant Dietz, the general's great-great grandson.

The family was saved from financial ruin. How admired was Grant? Two of the pallbearers at his funeral were former Confederate generals.Īs for the memoir? At more than 600 pages, it was a runaway bestseller. Flower arrangements, encased in bee's wax, have been there for 127 years - mementos of the outpouring of grief that came from every part of the country. Fred Grant, at the moment doctors said President Grant had breathed his last: eight minutes after eight o'clock, July 23, 1885. Welch showed Rocca a clock that was stopped by Grant's son, Col. It's a remarkable feat of writing.'Īnd one he finished only days before dying. 'When Grant says that he could write 10,000 words in a day, and the words hardly needed any revising at all, you know, I and other writers are just sort of put to shame by this. 'He discovered that he really did have a facility for it,' said Brands. Grant was in too much pain to talk to his family or visitors, so he wrote notes: 'I have such difficulty in speaking that I am no company.'īut the memoir writing came easier than he may have expected. 'That's cocaine, and every year the New York State Department of Parks and Recreation measures this and makes sure that none of it is gone,' Welch said. 'Is that sediment down there, is that cocaine?' Rocca asked. 'It was used to bathe his throat and his tongue, to give him some relief from the pain,' Welch explained. Many of his personal effects are still there: his bedclothes, his hairbrush, and of course, his 'cocaine water.' 'He would choke because of his tongue and throat cancer.' Welch said the former president would sit with his legs propped up, a pad in front of him. The cottage looks eerily like it did during the five weeks Grant spent here, writing. Welch said Grant had a 'mission,' that completing his memoir was 'the only way he was going to bail out his family from the poverty that he had inflicted on them.' 'The nation, in a very basic way, held its breath to see who would win this race.' Select the quantity of the product you desire and click the 'Add' button.'Everybody in the United States knew that Grant was dying,' said Brands. Read Less Below is a list of products arranged by condition.

#Ulysses s grant autobiography series#

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. 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.

From his frontier boyhood to his 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. 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. 'One of the most unflinching studies of war in our literature.' -William McFeeleyAmong the autobiographies of great military figures, Ulysses S.