Grant's Final VictoryGrant's Final Victory
Recounts the last year of the former president's life, after losing his fortune, discovering he had cancer, and his race to complete his memoirs.
Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant completed his now-famous memoir as he fought against his final illness, in the hope that profits from the book would support his family after he was swindled by a business partner. This book details the public support surrounding Grant as he rushed to finish the book before his death and describes the roles of family, friends, and physicians, especially Grant's friend and publisher Mark Twain. The book is illustrated with b&w historical photos. Flood is past president of PEN American Center. Annotation ©2011 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
In a masterful narrative, a prominent historian brings to life the last year of General Grant’s lifea tragic, poignant, and inspiring story
Shortly after losing all of his wealth in a terrible 1884 swindle, Ulysses S. Grant learned he had terminal throat and mouth cancer. Destitute and dying, Grant began to write his memoirs to save his family from permanent financial ruin.
As Grant continued his work, suffering increasing pain, the American public became aware of this race between Grant’s writing and his fatal illness. Twenty years after his respectful and magnanimous demeanor toward Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, people in both the North and the South came to know Grant as the brave, honest man he was, now using his famous determination in this final effort. Grant finishedMemoirs just four days before he died in July 1885.
Published after his death by his friend Mark Twain, Grant’s Memoirs became an instant bestseller, restoring his family’s financial health and, more importantly, helping to cure the nation of bitter discord. More than any other American before or since, Grant, in his last year, was able to heal thisthe country’s greatest wound.
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- Cambridge, MA : Da Capo Press, 2011.
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