It is said the Ulysses S Grant was a failure in everything except
marriage and war. This isn't quite true; he must also be accounted
a considerable success as a writer, even though this success came
so late in his life. As he was dying of throat cancer he faced the
prospect of leaving his family destitute because of unwise
investments (he always failed at business). He wrote his memoirs at
the behest of a publisher, finishing them only days before he died,
and the success ensured his family's future. And rightly so, for
these memoirs are among the finest works of literature to have
emerged from the American Civil war. Beautifully written, with
lucid, clear prose that instantly brings great events to life,
Grant tells a stirring story that takes us from his childhood to
his experiences in the Mexican War, then garrison duty in
California shortly before the gold rush, resignation from the army
to pursue a variety of doomed busineess ventures (though
unfailingly honest himself, he was never able to recognize graft or
duplicity in others), and then the war. His account of his wartime
experiences is reportage of a very high order, and because Grant
was present at (and indeed largely responsible for) many of the
most important Union victories of the war from Forts Henry and
Donaldson to Shiloch, Vicksburg, Chattanooga and on to the
surrender a Appomattox, we are treated to an intimate glimpse of
turning points in the conflict. The memoirs end with the grand
parade at the finale of the war; they don't take us on to Grant's
unhappy time as president, though perhaps that is just as well.
With an introduction by James M McPherson, one of the finest of
contemporary Civil War historians, this is a book that deserves to
be read by anyone with an interest in the people who make history.
(Kirkus UK)
Faced with failing health and financial ruin, the Civil War's greatest general and former president wrote his personal memoirs to secure his family's future - and won himself a unique place in American letters.Devoted almost entirely to his life as a soldier, Grant's Memoirs traces the trajectory of his extraordinary career - from West Point cadet to general-in-chief of all Union armies. For their directness and clarity, his writings on war are without rival in American literature, and his autobiography deserves a place among the very best in the genre.
This Penguin Classics edition of Grants Personal Memoirs includes an indespensable introduction and explanatory notes by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James M. McPherson.
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