Personal Memoirs (Penguin Classics) - Softcover

Grant, Ulysses S.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0140437010 ISBN 13: 9780140437010

Publisher: Penguin Classics, 1999

Synopsis

“The foremost military memoir in the English language, written in a clear, supple style . . . a masterpiece.” —Ron Chernow, in Grant

Faced with cancer and financial ruin, Ulysses S. Grant wrote his personal memoirs to secure his family's future—and won himself a unique place in American letters. Acclaimed by writers as diverse as Mark Twain and Gertrude Stein, Grant's memoirs demonstrate the intelligence, intense determination, and laconic modesty that made him the Union's foremost commander. Personal Memoirs is devoted almost entirely to his life as a soldier, tracing the trajectory of his extraordinary career from West Point cadet to general-in-chief of all Union armies. With their directness and clarity, his writings on war are without rival in American literature.

This edition of Grant’s Personal Memoirs includes an indispensable introduction and explanatory notes by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian James M. McPherson.

About this title

Review:

In 1862, a prominent Republican visited President Lincoln and called General Ulysses S. Grant an incompetent drunk who created unnecessary political problems. Lincoln, frustrated with all his generals but this one, famously replied: "I can't spare this man; he fights." Indeed, Lincoln had gone through a series of unheroic generals before settling on Grant to lead the Union's Army of the Potomac. Grant's success at marshaling the industrial might of the North eventually pounded the South into submission. This memoir, finished as its author was dying of throat cancer in 1885, is widely admired for its clear and straightforward prose. The volume was an enormously popular hit upon publication (by Mark Twain, no less), and today Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant ranks among the finest pieces of military autobiography ever written.

From the Publisher:

These are in stock and ready for immediate shipment if you use the DSI4 Marketplace shop. This is a Great gift for the upcoming holiday season. The paper used is library quality and this is not a mass market paperback set.

About this edition

• Publisher: Penguin Classics
• Publication date: 1999
• ISBN 10: 0140437010
• ISBN 13: 9780140437010
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 704