Memoirs of U.S. Grant

[labman]

I recently purchased a signed copy of U.S. Grants memoirs. The date of the signature 1885 but the books date of publication is 1895. I don't understand and I don't think it is a forged signature.

[tulip]

Bob: The signature is a facscimile of Grant's signature. If you look in the illustration it states that fact there.

The Memoirs were not printed until after Grant's death. He finished them one week before his death. All copies have the fascimile page.

The original manuscript is in the Library of Congress and demonstrate how little actually editing was done by Webster and Company. In fact, most of the editing is in Grant's own handwriting. John Simon who is the foremost expert on Grant in the country and charged with publishing all of the Grant papers will be issuing a new annotated edition of the Memoirs in the next year or two. He will also include those sections that Grant excised out for fear of hurting someone's feelings.

Connie

[labman]

There is bleed through on the backside of the page. It is also all that is written on either side. I was aware of when he died that is why I didn't understand. I don't have the book with me because I gave it to my father for Christmas but will check the list of illustrations.

[tulip]

Bob: It is possible that someone wrote over the signature to produce a bleed. I don't know. But since the book did not exist before Grant's death, the only signed copies in existence were signed by Mark Twain and for obvious reasons are extremely valuable. Last set with Sam Clemmens name went at auction for $30 thousand. The usual price for the green volumes, which were the most inexpensive and are not rare because so many were printed, is generally $50 to $150 if in pristine condition. I just checked my copy and the signature is listed in the illustration list as a facsimile. Hope your father isn't too disappointed.

Anything you want to know about the Memoirs can be found at the Ulysses S. Grant Home Page. The owner is one of the foremost experts on Grant in the country and her information is unquestionably accurate. Grant Home Page can be found at www.mscomm.com/~ulysses/ Go to bottom of the page under <u>Last Days.</u> I think it is Memoirs II that lists all the editions and values.

Connie Boone

Connie

[labman]

thank you for your help

[johan_steele]

Connie... Did you just say the Sam Clemmens signatures of the US Grant memoirs were worth $30k... My father bought one at an auction a couple years ago for $50 there were three in the box....

[tulip]

Shane: I saw the auction on booktv last summer. I believe it was held by Sothebys. My guess, if your father believes he has copies signed by Mark Twain, he needs to get the signatures verified by two experts and then contact a creditable auction house. If all goes well with the verification etc, I suspect he might take the family out for a lobster and champagne dinner at one of the better eating establishments.

[tulip]

Mark Twain, of course, was thoroughly enamored of the General. Their relationship had covered the last 10 years of Grant's life and Twain wrote about Grant frequently.

When Grant began his second volume, he was too weak to hold a pencil and a stenographer was asked to help in April 1885 Noble E. Dawson had known Grant since 1881 when he accompanied the General on a tour of Mexico. After Grant's death, Dawson was interviewed by the Philadelphia Inquirer. "General Grant dictated very freely and easily. He made very few changes and never hemmed and hawed. Mr Mark Twain was shown the manuscript of the first volume during one of my dictation sessions with the General. Mr. Twain was astonished when he looked at it and said there was not one literary man in one hundred who furnished as clean a copy as Grant. The Generals sentences rarely had to be revised in any way, and it was only in the last few weeks that he did not express himself very well."

The Memoirs were an immediate publishing hit. So many were sold that original copies are not rare. It is also one of the few books that has never gone out of print and is still considered a must on the bookshelf of any serious student of the Civil War.

[gary]

If you get a copy of Sheridan's memoirs, you'll find the same.