April 28, 2025 • 10 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, author Louis Picone tells the story of how Grant's memoirs came to be while the former president was bankrupt and dying of cancer.
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Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we continue with our American stories. And up next
a story about Ulysses S. Grant by Lewis Pecone, author
of Grant's Tomb, The Epic Death of Ulysses S. Grant,
and the Making of an American Pantheon. Today, Lewis shares
with us the story of how Grant's memoirs, considered the
best presidential memoirs ever written, came to be Take it away, Lewis.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
After his presidency, Grant almost immediately departed on a tour
that was supposed to be just for Europe. He was
going to travel all around Europe basically as long as
his interest and money held out, he ended up extending
that trip all through Europe, into Africa, all through Asia,
and for two and a half years he had traveled
(00:57):
the world, never came back to America. From May eighteen
seventy seven until September of eighteen seventy nine is when
he landed back in America, and everywhere he went Grant
was treated like a global celebrity, like royalty. There was parades,
there was military honors given to him. He met with kings,
(01:19):
he met with royalty, so he was really given a
hero's welcome. Wherever he went, and when he came back
to America, his popularity was as high as it's ever been.
And this was a time when America was still greatly
divided after the Civil War. This was only fifteen eighteen
(01:40):
years after the Civil War. Reconstruction had ended when Rutherford B.
Hayes had taken office, but the North and South were
still greatly divided. But Grant was the most popular man
in America and really perhaps.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
The world due to this tour.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
But he was also perhaps the one figure that was
admired by all sections and was really a unifier. He
was beloved by Democrats and Republicans, by Northerners and Southerners,
by whites and African Americans, by men and women.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
In the North.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
He was a savior of the Union. He was a
liberator of four million enslaved. But even in the South
he was beloved, And it's just it's fascinating to think
about that, because he was the victorious general that defeated
the South in the Civil War. But he was beloved
because he was magnanimous. He had given generous terms to
Roberty Lee at Appomatos, but also all throughout the war
(02:32):
he was known for treating Southerners with compassion, whether they
were captured soldiers.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Or whether they were Southern citizens.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
But presidents didn't have pensions until Truman, and Grant had
spent most of his money that he earned as presidency
in entertaining at the White House. Presidents usually used to
pick up most of the tab for entertaining at the
White House when he left office and his worldwide tour.
Most of that was paid for by investments with a
(03:03):
Virginia mining company that he had done very well with
after the comstock loads.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
But he was by no means wealthy.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
He had wealthy patrons that had been very generous with him.
They had given him a home in Long Branch as
well as given him a home in New York City,
which in the Gilded Age that didn't really raise any
eyebrows as it would nowadays. But in eighteen eighty four
Grant had suffered two traumatic setbacks in the spring, he
(03:33):
was healthy and wealthy. Besides his generous manufactors, he had
received enormous Gilded Age profits from his investments with a
firm Grant and Ward. So one of the partners was
his son and the other one was a man named
Ferdinand Ward, and the profits they had achieved were really astronomical,
So Grant was the wealthiest that he ever was in
(03:54):
his life at the beginning of eighteen eighty four, but
by the fall he was not only bankrupt, but he
was mortally ill. He had found out that the investments
were part of a Ponzi scheme, and Grant had gone
almost instantaneously from being wealthy and having no concerns about
money to now he was bankrupt. And not only bankrupt,
he was deeply in debt. And then in October, just
(04:17):
a couple months later, he was diagnosed with inoperable throat
and tongue cancer, which at the time, a diagnosis of
cancer was pretty much a death sentence. So Grant's number
one concern at this point became to make sure that
he didn't die, leaving his family financially destituted. So Grant
(04:40):
decided to publish his memoirs, with a number one goal
to raise that money for his beloved wife, Julia and
his children. By this point, civil war memoirs had become
somewhat of a cottage industry. They were very popular, and
privates all the way up to generals were writing their
(05:00):
memoirs and making.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Profits but Grant. Grant was like the white whale.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
He was the victorious general that people most wanted to
hear from, and publishing companies were after him to write
his memoirs. He had always declined he didn't consider himself
to be a very good writer and he didn't need
the money before, but now his situation had totally changed.
So immediately after getting that diagnosis, he went straight to
(05:26):
the Century Publishing. Now, for years, Century Publishing had been
after Grant to write his memoirs. Now he had a
relationship with Century Publishing over the years. He had written
some small articles about individual battles. So he went to them.
He didn't tell him why, but he said, I'm ready
to write my memoirs. And they were thrilled. But they
presented Grant with a publishing contract that was pretty much
(05:50):
a standard contract at the time. It was the same
contract they probably would have given any.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Author that they'd work with at the time.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
So Grant luckily didn't sign the contract. What he did
is that he took the contract home. Now, by this point,
Grant had developed a friendship with Mark Twain, who was
probably perhaps the second most popular man in America at
this time. It's kind of like an interesting friendship because
Twain had actually briefly.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Served in the Confederate Army.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
So Twain came to visit Grant at his New York
City brownstone, and Grant showed him the contract. Now, Twain
had recently started his own publishing company, which was Charles L.
Webster and Company. Twain looked at the contract and was
astonished that Century would have offered such a meager contract,
(06:44):
such a standard meager contract, to someone like Grant. So
Twain had told him, why don't you publish your.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Book with my publishing company. I will give you.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
A much better contract and really do as much as
possible to guarantee that Julia was well taken care of
after you died. So it turns out the first book
that Twain's publishing company ever published was The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn, and the second book that he published was
(07:15):
Grant's Memoirs. Right away, Grant started to write, and as
he was writing.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
His health began to deteriorate.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Over the next eight months, he continued to write as
he was in great physical pain. Soon he was struggling
to swallow and his weight plummeted. He was struggling to speak.
He got to the point that he could no longer
dictate his memoirs, so he had to write his thoughts
and his memoirs by hand. After a while, his doctors
started to grow concerned that writing the memoirs were the
(07:45):
only thing that were keeping Grant alive. They became his
will to live and this was really the final and
perhaps the greatest battle of Grant's life to finish these
memoirs with an impending death. So after eight months of rite,
he finally put his finishing touches on his memoirs on
July nineteenth, and just four days later, Grant died. The
(08:12):
entire country was basically on death watch with Grant. Once
the press found out about Grant about the fact that
he was sick, which a family tried to keep it secret,
the press had had some clues and they started to
gather outside of his home. This became national front page
news almost every day, where the public was kept deprized
(08:33):
of Grant's health, and they knew he was writing his
memoirs to gain this financial security. But the fact is
if the book wasn't good, it wouldn't have sold. There
was no great revelations in the book. It's not like
Grant had told anything that the public really.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Wasn't aware of. But it was Grant's voice.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
It was his authentic, plain speaking voice, his humility, his
humor that was in there that had never been conveyed
by a president before and was just so much better
than the other Civil War memoirs due to his perspective
as the victorious general. I mean, it wasn't only considered
a great Civil War memoir, it is widely considered the
(09:15):
greatest presidential memoir or memoir by a president that's ever
been written in history. And it's just fascinating because he'd
never written before, he never wrote a book before. Well,
it was the largest amount that had ever been earned
by an author up until that time. No other author
in history had ever earned what Julia had earned on
(09:38):
behalf of Grant. The royalties ended up being between about
four hundred and twenty to four hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Now in today's money, that's about twelve to thirteen million dollars.
What this meant was that Julia, who lived another seventeen
years after Grant, never had to worry about money for
the rest of her life. All because of Grant's final
(09:59):
battle in rightface his memoirs.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
And a great job on the production by Monte Montgomery,
and a special thanks to Lewis Picone his book Grant's Tomb.
Go to Amazon or the usual suspects and pick it up.
What a life and what a way to end life?
My goodness, looking at an impending death, pushing out a
book that Mark Twain publishes, and my goodness, not a
(10:26):
bad track record from Mark Twain. His first two Huck
Finn and then Grant's memoirs. And by the way, pick
up Grant's memoirs. You can't stop reading them. It's not
like reading presidential memoirs today with five ghostwriters. Grant's memoirs
here on our American Stories.
And we continue with our American stories. And up next
a story about Ulysses S. Grant by Lewis Pecone, author
of Grant's Tomb, The Epic Death of Ulysses S. Grant,
and the Making of an American Pantheon. Today, Lewis shares
with us the story of how Grant's memoirs, considered the
best presidential memoirs ever written, came to be Take it away, Lewis.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
After his presidency, Grant almost immediately departed on a tour
that was supposed to be just for Europe. He was
going to travel all around Europe basically as long as
his interest and money held out, he ended up extending
that trip all through Europe, into Africa, all through Asia,
and for two and a half years he had traveled
(00:57):
the world, never came back to America. From May eighteen
seventy seven until September of eighteen seventy nine is when
he landed back in America, and everywhere he went Grant
was treated like a global celebrity, like royalty. There was parades,
there was military honors given to him. He met with kings,
(01:19):
he met with royalty, so he was really given a
hero's welcome. Wherever he went, and when he came back
to America, his popularity was as high as it's ever been.
And this was a time when America was still greatly
divided after the Civil War. This was only fifteen eighteen
(01:40):
years after the Civil War. Reconstruction had ended when Rutherford B.
Hayes had taken office, but the North and South were
still greatly divided. But Grant was the most popular man
in America and really perhaps.
Speaker 3 (01:54):
The world due to this tour.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
But he was also perhaps the one figure that was
admired by all sections and was really a unifier. He
was beloved by Democrats and Republicans, by Northerners and Southerners,
by whites and African Americans, by men and women.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
In the North.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
He was a savior of the Union. He was a
liberator of four million enslaved. But even in the South
he was beloved, And it's just it's fascinating to think
about that, because he was the victorious general that defeated
the South in the Civil War. But he was beloved
because he was magnanimous. He had given generous terms to
Roberty Lee at Appomatos, but also all throughout the war
(02:32):
he was known for treating Southerners with compassion, whether they
were captured soldiers.
Speaker 3 (02:37):
Or whether they were Southern citizens.
Speaker 2 (02:43):
But presidents didn't have pensions until Truman, and Grant had
spent most of his money that he earned as presidency
in entertaining at the White House. Presidents usually used to
pick up most of the tab for entertaining at the
White House when he left office and his worldwide tour.
Most of that was paid for by investments with a
(03:03):
Virginia mining company that he had done very well with
after the comstock loads.
Speaker 3 (03:08):
But he was by no means wealthy.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
He had wealthy patrons that had been very generous with him.
They had given him a home in Long Branch as
well as given him a home in New York City,
which in the Gilded Age that didn't really raise any
eyebrows as it would nowadays. But in eighteen eighty four
Grant had suffered two traumatic setbacks in the spring, he
(03:33):
was healthy and wealthy. Besides his generous manufactors, he had
received enormous Gilded Age profits from his investments with a
firm Grant and Ward. So one of the partners was
his son and the other one was a man named
Ferdinand Ward, and the profits they had achieved were really astronomical,
So Grant was the wealthiest that he ever was in
(03:54):
his life at the beginning of eighteen eighty four, but
by the fall he was not only bankrupt, but he
was mortally ill. He had found out that the investments
were part of a Ponzi scheme, and Grant had gone
almost instantaneously from being wealthy and having no concerns about
money to now he was bankrupt. And not only bankrupt,
he was deeply in debt. And then in October, just
(04:17):
a couple months later, he was diagnosed with inoperable throat
and tongue cancer, which at the time, a diagnosis of
cancer was pretty much a death sentence. So Grant's number
one concern at this point became to make sure that
he didn't die, leaving his family financially destituted. So Grant
(04:40):
decided to publish his memoirs, with a number one goal
to raise that money for his beloved wife, Julia and
his children. By this point, civil war memoirs had become
somewhat of a cottage industry. They were very popular, and
privates all the way up to generals were writing their
(05:00):
memoirs and making.
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Profits but Grant. Grant was like the white whale.
Speaker 2 (05:05):
He was the victorious general that people most wanted to
hear from, and publishing companies were after him to write
his memoirs. He had always declined he didn't consider himself
to be a very good writer and he didn't need
the money before, but now his situation had totally changed.
So immediately after getting that diagnosis, he went straight to
(05:26):
the Century Publishing. Now, for years, Century Publishing had been
after Grant to write his memoirs. Now he had a
relationship with Century Publishing over the years. He had written
some small articles about individual battles. So he went to them.
He didn't tell him why, but he said, I'm ready
to write my memoirs. And they were thrilled. But they
presented Grant with a publishing contract that was pretty much
(05:50):
a standard contract at the time. It was the same
contract they probably would have given any.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
Author that they'd work with at the time.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
So Grant luckily didn't sign the contract. What he did
is that he took the contract home. Now, by this point,
Grant had developed a friendship with Mark Twain, who was
probably perhaps the second most popular man in America at
this time. It's kind of like an interesting friendship because
Twain had actually briefly.
Speaker 3 (06:19):
Served in the Confederate Army.
Speaker 2 (06:21):
So Twain came to visit Grant at his New York
City brownstone, and Grant showed him the contract. Now, Twain
had recently started his own publishing company, which was Charles L.
Webster and Company. Twain looked at the contract and was
astonished that Century would have offered such a meager contract,
(06:44):
such a standard meager contract, to someone like Grant. So
Twain had told him, why don't you publish your.
Speaker 3 (06:50):
Book with my publishing company. I will give you.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
A much better contract and really do as much as
possible to guarantee that Julia was well taken care of
after you died. So it turns out the first book
that Twain's publishing company ever published was The Adventures of
Huckleberry Finn, and the second book that he published was
(07:15):
Grant's Memoirs. Right away, Grant started to write, and as
he was writing.
Speaker 3 (07:22):
His health began to deteriorate.
Speaker 2 (07:24):
Over the next eight months, he continued to write as
he was in great physical pain. Soon he was struggling
to swallow and his weight plummeted. He was struggling to speak.
He got to the point that he could no longer
dictate his memoirs, so he had to write his thoughts
and his memoirs by hand. After a while, his doctors
started to grow concerned that writing the memoirs were the
(07:45):
only thing that were keeping Grant alive. They became his
will to live and this was really the final and
perhaps the greatest battle of Grant's life to finish these
memoirs with an impending death. So after eight months of rite,
he finally put his finishing touches on his memoirs on
July nineteenth, and just four days later, Grant died. The
(08:12):
entire country was basically on death watch with Grant. Once
the press found out about Grant about the fact that
he was sick, which a family tried to keep it secret,
the press had had some clues and they started to
gather outside of his home. This became national front page
news almost every day, where the public was kept deprized
(08:33):
of Grant's health, and they knew he was writing his
memoirs to gain this financial security. But the fact is
if the book wasn't good, it wouldn't have sold. There
was no great revelations in the book. It's not like
Grant had told anything that the public really.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Wasn't aware of. But it was Grant's voice.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
It was his authentic, plain speaking voice, his humility, his
humor that was in there that had never been conveyed
by a president before and was just so much better
than the other Civil War memoirs due to his perspective
as the victorious general. I mean, it wasn't only considered
a great Civil War memoir, it is widely considered the
(09:15):
greatest presidential memoir or memoir by a president that's ever
been written in history. And it's just fascinating because he'd
never written before, he never wrote a book before. Well,
it was the largest amount that had ever been earned
by an author up until that time. No other author
in history had ever earned what Julia had earned on
(09:38):
behalf of Grant. The royalties ended up being between about
four hundred and twenty to four hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Now in today's money, that's about twelve to thirteen million dollars.
What this meant was that Julia, who lived another seventeen
years after Grant, never had to worry about money for
the rest of her life. All because of Grant's final
(09:59):
battle in rightface his memoirs.
Speaker 1 (10:04):
And a great job on the production by Monte Montgomery,
and a special thanks to Lewis Picone his book Grant's Tomb.
Go to Amazon or the usual suspects and pick it up.
What a life and what a way to end life?
My goodness, looking at an impending death, pushing out a
book that Mark Twain publishes, and my goodness, not a
(10:26):
bad track record from Mark Twain. His first two Huck
Finn and then Grant's memoirs. And by the way, pick
up Grant's memoirs. You can't stop reading them. It's not
like reading presidential memoirs today with five ghostwriters. Grant's memoirs
here on our American Stories.
Host
Lee Habeeb
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