Personal Memoirs by Ulysses S Grant

Personal Memoirs by Ulysses S Grant

"One of the most unflinching studies of war in our literature."--William McFeeley


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 (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.

Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) was born Hiram Ulysses Grant in Point Pleasant, Ohio, and worked on the family farm until his appointment in 1839 to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. There, he was erroneously registered as U. S. Grant--a change that he would adopt for the rest of his life. He served in the Mexican War (1846­-1848) under Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. After the outbreak of the Civil War, Grant was appointed colonel of a militia regiment, and moved up through the ranks of the army, eventually becoming lieutenant general with command of all the armies of the United States and leading the Union army to victory in 1865. From 1869-1877 he served as the eighteenth president of the United States. Encouraged by his friend Mark Twain, Grant began preparing his memoirs in 1884. The Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant were completed just a few days before his death on July 23, 1885.

James M. McPherson, the George Henry David Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University, is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom, as well as the award-winning books The Struggle for Equality, For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War, and Tried for War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief, among others. In 2007, he was the first recipient of the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for lifetime achievement in military history, and in 2009, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780375752285
ISBN 10	0375752285
Title	Personal Memoirs
Author	Ulysses S Grant
Series	Modern Library War
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Random House USA Inc
Year published	1999-05-04
Number of pages	736
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.