Overview

Among 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 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-Grant was dying of throat cancer-and encouraged and edited from its very inception by Mark Twain, it is a triumph of the art of autobiography. Grant was sick and broke when he began work on his memoirs. Driven by financial worries and a desire to provide for his wife, he wrote diligently during a year of deteriorating health. He vowed he would finish the work before he died, and one week after its completion, he lay dead at the age of sixty-three. Publication of the memoirs came at a time when the public was being treated to a spate of wartime reminiscences, many of them defensive in nature, seeking to refight battles or attack old enemies. Grant's penetrating and stately work reveals a nobility of spirit and an innate grasp of the important facts, which he rarely displayed in private life. He writes in his preface that he took up the task with a sincere desire to avoid doing injustice to anyone, whether on the National or the Confederate side.

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9781441766755

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This volume, written while the author was on the verge of the grave...[is] written in a spirit of brotherly kindness towards all sections of his countrymen, gives us an entrance into the great captain's mind, and allows us to look over the wild whirlpool of the war through his eyes...It is this which constitutes at once the great charm and the supreme value of this...addition to the literature of the war for the Union. -- British Quarterly Review A great piece of writing, one that can be appreciated even by readers with little interest in military history. -- Amazon.com (editorial review) One of the most unflinching studies of war in our literature. -- William McFeeley, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Ulysses S. Grant The best [memoirs] of any general's since Caesar. -- Mark Twain

A great piece of writing, one that can be appreciated even by readers with little interest in military history. -- Amazon.com (editorial review) One of the most unflinching studies of war in our literature. -- William McFeeley, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Ulysses S. Grant This volume, written while the author was on the verge of the grave...[is] written in a spirit of brotherly kindness towards all sections of his countrymen, gives us an entrance into the great captain's mind, and allows us to look over the wild whirlpool of the war through his eyes...It is this which constitutes at once the great charm and the supreme value of this...addition to the literature of the war for the Union. -- British Quarterly Review The best [memoirs] of any general's since Caesar. -- Mark Twain

Author Information

Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) was a general in the Civil War and the eighteenth president of the United States. He wrote his memoirs after being diagnosed with throat cancer and succumbed to the disease a mere week after its completion. Robin Field is the AudioFile Earphones Award-winning narrator of numerous audiobooks, as well as an award-winning actor, singer, writer, and lyricist whose career has spanned six decades. He has starred on and off Broadway, headlined at Carnegie Hall, authored numerous musical reviews, and hosted or performed on a number of television and radio programs over the years.

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