Tuesday, January 02, 2018
According to Mark Twain, these are “the best [memoirs] of any general’s since Caesar”, but we have to take that verdict with a pinch of salt: Twain was also Grant’s publisher. As a one-time Confederate soldier, Twain liked to joke that it was General Grant’s prowess on behalf of the Union cause that had persuaded him to desert the colours and become a journalist.
Twain had first invited the retired president to write his autobiography in 1881, but Grant had declined the offer. A modest man, he had replied, “No one is interested in me”, referring to two books about him which had recently flopped. But when, in 1884, he was swindled out of his savings, and desperate for money, Twain’s offer seemed much more tempting. Now, writing in pencil, or dictating to a secretary, he began to compose the book that many commentators agree sets the gold standard for presidential memoirs.
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