I am looking to find a good biography of U.S. Grant. I am not a big fan of Ron Chernow because I don't trust his objectivity. Anyone have some suggestions?
You have been very badly served in the convoluted answers to your question, and I apologize (because of my national character, perhaps..).
I’m no expert but I hope others will chime in with just the facts.
Brooks D. Simpson is widely recognized for his biography of Grant’s early years,
Triumph Over Adversity. It’s succinct and authoritative, very readable, not a hagiography as some claim. His volume on the later years is eagerly awaited.
On the longer side is
American Ulysses by Ronald C. White. It happened to be the first full biography I read of Grant, and White did a good job of bringing him to life without trying to psychoanalise him.
H.W. Brands wrote an interesting book on the years between the war and Grant’s Presidency,
Let Us Have Peace.
Jean Edward Smith wrote a good biography called
Grant.
On the Presidency Charles W. Calhoun came out with
The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant less than a year ago.
I’m also rather fond of a book written in the 1990s by a lawyer named Frank Scaturro,
President Grant Reconsidered, which does a terrific job of cutting through some of the horse manure commonly believed about Grant.
MvFeely’s biography
Grant came out in 1991. Although he won a Pulitzer Prize the book has been criticized for being too negative about Grant, and some have attributed that to the anti war sentiment in the wake of the Vietnam War.
I’m sure I’ve left something out.