Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant

By: Ulysses S. Grant

Narrated by: Robin Field

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 63.

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 fact, 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.”

Public Domain (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“The best [memoirs] of any general’s since Caesar.” (Mark Twain)

“One of the most unflinching studies of war in our literature.” (William McFeeley, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Ulysses S. Grant)

Narrator not modulated to my perception of Grant’s voice

I had to ratchet up the speed of this recording to 1.3x. Field’s voice was not consistent to my judgment of an appropriate narrator would sound like. I would have expected a round gravely baritone voice. Field’s at 1.0x speed is unbearable. I will acknowledge that Fields did an admirable job enacting parts that arose. I spend such time on remarking on the Audible performance because Grant is a considerable figure in the Civil War and American History in the nineteenth century. Also, that his memoir is considered one of the most highly esteemed memoir in the genre. For that, it is disappointing that the producers of this recording did not take enough care in finding a suitably modulated voice that brings out the identity of Grant, the General of the Army of the Union Army, and the President of the United States. Also, that for Volume II, that he was a man who was pushing through an illness that would later kill him. I cannot tell whose memoir is better written, Grant’s or Sherman’s. Both are so very meaningful. I don’t think I identified one passive sentence written by Grant’s. At first, for about the first one hundred pages, the sentences remain in the same rhythmic pattern. The pages sound as if he is writing a report, which if one reads his Appendix that is his 1865 Report to Secretary of War Stanton, he doesn’t much deviate. The memoir, being a description of his military career, mostly, and his generalship during the Civil War, he never loosens up his writing style or its content. It’s all military. With seemingly all active sentences, it is engaging and entertaining reading. One gets to know a man and the men who he commanded. He was a man with a great responsibilities, challenges personally and professionally. A man who saw a great map and orchestrated the movement of his generals and their commands, coping with weak ones, and glorifying brave, energetic and intelligent ones, men he could trust, like Sherman. He was a brilliant General, a tough individual who coped with the weather, lack of sleep, lack of good food, enemy fire, slanderous press, and sabotage. His memoir is a report to us all. It is not an aggrandizement of his self, but a straight forward narrative with some honest assessments of himself, battle tactics and strategies, and his generals, yet when making an assessment of others he is magnanimous, concluding that an act or failure to act due to something out of their control. Sherman’s judgment of Grant was the very same to the point that he was protective of his friend. See, Sherman’s Memoir. I think that if one reads and listens to Grant’s memoir, and gets to know this man, one will be the better for it. I would also read Sherman’s.

Very detailed, ends shortly after Lincoln assassin

I expected the book to include Grant's presidency, so was disappointed that the book ended before that. Very impressed with Grant's character, especially his pragmatism & humility in victory. He deeply mourned Lincoln's death & wrote that the Reconstruction years would have been very different had he lived.

The Perfect Book!

I've read quite allot on Grant, so I thought I would attempt his Personal Memoirs. I thought it would be arduous, but I found an amazingly written book that kept my interest on almost every page. This book provided insight into the personality of a great man with a good sense of humor. The narrator did such an amazing job that i found myself thinking it was Grant himself.

Excellent!

Essential listening for the student of the civil war- and understanding war. The narrator really helped me imagine that Grant was speaking.

a very relevant and worthwhile title

perhaps a bit dry if you are not writing a thesis on the specifics of action, movement and theory. however, the texture does provide a wonderful feeling of knowing the historical character that was this incredible man. i found it painfully relevant to american current events and is absolutely worth while if you have the patience and the time for it. i laughed, i cried, its good. its very good.