Grant US Grant's Personal Memoirs

Whatever readers think of the content of Grant's memoirs, there is no credible evidence that anybody else wrote any of it. There are hundreds of eye witness reports that Grant, pencil in hand, wrote the whole thing longhand. Even in the 1880's publishers had book editors who would correct punctuation and grammatical errors in books before they went to the printer. This is the only way anyone else's hand touched Grant's work.

That's not exactly true. Adam Badeau sued the Grant estate seeking additional compensation for the work he did on the memoirs. If memory serves, Mrs. Grant settled the suit with a lump-sum payment to Badeau.

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That's not exactly true. Adam Badeau sued the Grant estate seeking additional compensation for the work he did on the memoirs. If memory serves, Mrs. Grant settled the suit with a lump-sum payment to Badeau.

264px-UlyssesSGrant_staff_ca1865_byJAWhipple_Harvard.png
I wonder though if that is not for research that Grant was unable to do because of his ill health rather than actual writing. Does anyone know where we might find the wording of the actual suit?
 
That's not exactly true. Adam Badeau sued the Grant estate seeking additional compensation for the work he did on the memoirs. If memory serves, Mrs. Grant settled the suit with a lump-sum payment to Badeau.

264px-UlyssesSGrant_staff_ca1865_byJAWhipple_Harvard.png
From an article on Badeau.

"...and assisted Grant with the research, fact checking, and editing when Grant authored Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant."
 
From an article on Badeau.

"...and assisted Grant with the research, fact checking, and editing when Grant authored Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant."

Some Grant fans get their panties in a twist at any suggestion that Badeau had a hand in writing the memoirs. I don't see why. Badeau was a professional writer and Grant was not. Many leading men have speechwriters and ghost writers; nobody cares much.

The memoirs were written by Grant and they are his authentic voice. He just had a little help along the way. No harm, no foul (as long as ghost writer gets fairly paid).
 
from Wiki:

As Grant's Memoirs approached completion, having benefited from Badeau's extensive rewriting and additions to its earlier sections, he became convinced that sales would likely go far higher than the $30,000 envisioned in this agreement. With Grant failing badly, Badeau proposed a new arrangement in April 1885: he would complete the work at the price of $1,000 a month, plus 10% of the profits. Grant thought the offer too generous, and he was additionally annoyed by press leaks that painted Badeau as the true author of the forthcoming work. Grant broke off relations with his long-time aide and refused to pay him the $10,000 called for in their agreement. When the sales of the Memoirs skyrocketed past $30,000—they eventually brought $450,000—Badeau sued to get his money. Eventually Mrs. Grant paid him the originally agreed upon $10,000 plus interest of $1,200 (see Brooks D. Simpson article on Badeau in American National Biography). (He subsequently settled with Grant's son Frederick for $10,000,[13] or about $250,000 in 2012 dollars.)[25]

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Some Grant fans get their panties in a twist at any suggestion that Badeau had a hand in writing the memoirs. I don't see why. Badeau was a professional writer and Grant was not. Many leading men have speechwriters and ghost writers; nobody cares much.

The memoirs were written by Grant and they are his authentic voice. He just had a little help along the way. No harm, no foul (as long as ghost writer gets fairly paid).
Most book editors are professional writers. There is no shame in having a pro edit and critique your writing.
 
Ah the Old Canard that Buell saved Grant and the Union army at Shiloh with his timely arrival and dynamic leadership. Truth be know that at the end of the 1st day Grant had developed a very strong and secure final position filled with artillery and troops known as his "Last Line." Lew Wallace's division began arriving at about 6:30 pm.
The Confederates were so disorganized they had failed to make any efforts to resupply their men with ammo and other items and this lack was clearly evidenced on the 2nd day. Buell's troops were fresh and more than welcomed but they did not turn the tide and saved the Union. Grant was organized and prepared for the resumption of battle and extremely confident as shown by his comment in response to Sherman's remark about "devil's own day" which was "Yes. Lick'em tomorrow though." Doesn't sound like a man who needs saving.
Regards
David
 
Some Grant fans get their panties in a twist at any suggestion that Badeau had a hand in writing the memoirs. I don't see why. Badeau was a professional writer and Grant was not. Many leading men have speechwriters and ghost writers; nobody cares much.

The memoirs were written by Grant and they are his authentic voice. He just had a little help along the way. No harm, no foul (as long as ghost writer gets fairly paid).

Except Badeau wasn't a ghost writer. The original manuscript in Grant's writing exists. There was a time when he dictated and someone else wrote what he told them to write, but while he could still write, he wrote the manuscript himself.
 
I'm in the midst of reading the grand prize of my Christmas loot, the recently published Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant: The Complete Annotated Edition, edited by John F. Marszalek and others. Most of the annotations give more detail about the persons or events mentioned, but it is noted where Grant was in error or skipped over some details. And it has footnotes on each page, not endnotes, so only one bookmark is required. It's great reading! I'm in the midst of the Vicksburg campaign, which is where I gave up when trying to read the original version online (in Gutenberg). (I have vision issues trying to read on a computer screen.)
 
Ah the Old Canard that Buell saved Grant and the Union army at Shiloh with his timely arrival and dynamic leadership. Truth be know that at the end of the 1st day Grant had developed a very strong and secure final position filled with artillery and troops known as his "Last Line." Lew Wallace's division began arriving at about 6:30 pm.
The Confederates were so disorganized they had failed to make any efforts to resupply their men with ammo and other items and this lack was clearly evidenced on the 2nd day. Buell's troops were fresh and more than welcomed but they did not turn the tide and saved the Union. Grant was organized and prepared for the resumption of battle and extremely confident as shown by his comment in response to Sherman's remark about "devil's own day" which was "Yes. Lick'em tomorrow though." Doesn't sound like a man who needs saving.
Regards
David

For someone who stood by Grant's story of not being surprised or defeated, Sherman later had a different attitude about seeing Buell at sunset on the evening of the first day. "I admit that I was glad Buell was there, because I knew his troops were older than ours and better systematized and drilled, and his arrival made that certain, which was uncertain before."
 
Oh come on . . .

I thought everyone would enjoy a Civil War thread that included Milli Vanilli. :D

There are some regrettable, forgettable, heart wrenching, and memorable posts on that thread. This one is a gem worth repeating and re-reading from @KansasFreestater


I'm not a professional Grant scholar, but I have read 12 books (and counting!) about Grant so far, so perhaps you'd like to hear a few things I've learned that I can recall just off the top of my head:

1. For starters, Twain was not Grant's editor; he was Grant's publisher. There's a big difference. Grant was pretty much his own editor.

2. Adam Badeau had written his own book some years before, but when he came to help Grant with Grant's memoir, he was only a research assistant. Grant's memory was remarkable -- we have testimonies from numerous people who knew him throughout his entire military and presidential career, and one thing they all say is that whenever you got Grant talking, he was a wonderful storyteller with a prodigious gift of recall -- but even Grant could not recall every single date. He was scrupulously honest his whole life through as well, and did not want any careless errors to be propagated, so he had his son Fred, as well as Adam Badeau, on hand to check records and make sure that all the facts regarding battles, etc., were correct.

3. Grant refused morphine as much as he could, because he did fear that it would cloud or slow his thinking. The standard way to relieve the severe throat pain then was to numb his throat with cocaine, and this his doctors did. Dosages of cocaine, morphine or anything else were probably pretty fine-tuned, since Grant kept extremely detailed notes for his doctors, hoping that the information would be helpful in the future for doctors treating others in his condition.

4. Grant both wrote and dictated (to a stenographer) for as long as his voice would allow, then he went solely to writing. It is hard for most of us to conceive of doing that kind of work when one is in such pain and discomfort. He could not even sleep lying down, because the tumor would make him feel like he was choking; he had to sleep sitting in a chair. But Grant was an amazingly tough individual. When you read his life story -- and we have details from people who saw him day in, day out, for years at a time -- you are struck with his incredible tolerance for pain and discomfort. He suffered from horrible migraines, and he soldiered on. He broke his leg and had to be lifted onto his horse, with his crutches strapped on beside him for when he got to his destination, and he soldiered on. When he set his mind on something, he simply did not let anything stop him, not even excruciating pain. I know I couldn't write a book under such circumstances -- but I'm not Ulysses Grant.

If you really want to know what Grant's final year was like, there's a whole book about it:
Grant's Final Victory: Ulysses S. Grant's Heroic Last Year
 
There are some regrettable, forgettable, heart wrenching, and memorable posts on that thread. This one is a gem worth repeating and re-reading from @KansasFreestater
I'm not a professional Grant scholar, but I have read 12 books (and counting!) about Grant so far, so perhaps you'd like to hear a few things I've learned that I can recall just off the top of my head:

1. For starters, Twain was not Grant's editor; he was Grant's publisher. There's a big difference. Grant was pretty much his own editor.

2. Adam Badeau had written his own book some years before, but when he came to help Grant with Grant's memoir, he was only a research assistant. Grant's memory was remarkable -- we have testimonies from numerous people who knew him throughout his entire military and presidential career, and one thing they all say is that whenever you got Grant talking, he was a wonderful storyteller with a prodigious gift of recall -- but even Grant could not recall every single date. He was scrupulously honest his whole life through as well, and did not want any careless errors to be propagated, so he had his son Fred, as well as Adam Badeau, on hand to check records and make sure that all the facts regarding battles, etc., were correct.

3. Grant refused morphine as much as he could, because he did fear that it would cloud or slow his thinking. The standard way to relieve the severe throat pain then was to numb his throat with cocaine, and this his doctors did. Dosages of cocaine, morphine or anything else were probably pretty fine-tuned, since Grant kept extremely detailed notes for his doctors, hoping that the information would be helpful in the future for doctors treating others in his condition.

4. Grant both wrote and dictated (to a stenographer) for as long as his voice would allow, then he went solely to writing. It is hard for most of us to conceive of doing that kind of work when one is in such pain and discomfort. He could not even sleep lying down, because the tumor would make him feel like he was choking; he had to sleep sitting in a chair. But Grant was an amazingly tough individual. When you read his life story -- and we have details from people who saw him day in, day out, for years at a time -- you are struck with his incredible tolerance for pain and discomfort. He suffered from horrible migraines, and he soldiered on. He broke his leg and had to be lifted onto his horse, with his crutches strapped on beside him for when he got to his destination, and he soldiered on. When he set his mind on something, he simply did not let anything stop him, not even excruciating pain. I know I couldn't write a book under such circumstances -- but I'm not Ulysses Grant.

If you really want to know what Grant's final year was like, there's a whole book about it:
Grant's Final Victory: Ulysses S. Grant's Heroic Last Year

I'm not knocking Grant at all.

Actually, I often defend the General on this site.

My point was . . . never in a million years . . . would I expect to see Milli Vanilli in a conversation about General Ulysses S. Grant.
 
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