Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant

By: Ulysses S. Grant

Narrated by: Robin Field

Length: 29 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

Among the autobiographies of great military figures, Ulysses S. Grant’s is certainly one of the finest, and it is arguably the most notable literary achievement of any American president: a lucid, compelling, and brutally honest chronicle of triumph and failure. From his frontier boyhood, to his heroics in battle, to the grinding poverty from which the Civil War ironically rescued him, these memoirs are a mesmerizing, deeply moving account of a brilliant man told with great courage as he reflects on the fortunes that shaped his life and his character. Written under excruciating circumstances—Grant was dying of throat cancer—and encouraged and edited from its very inception by Mark Twain, it is a triumph of the art of autobiography.

Grant was sick and broke when he began work on his memoirs. Driven by financial worries and a desire to provide for his wife, he wrote diligently during a year of deteriorating health. He vowed he would finish the work before he died, and one week after its completion, he lay dead at the age of 63.

Publication of the memoirs came at a time when the public was being treated to a spate of wartime reminiscences, many of them defensive in nature, seeking to refight battles or attack old enemies. Grant’s penetrating and stately work reveals a nobility of spirit and an innate grasp of the important fact, which he rarely displayed in private life. He writes in his preface that he took up the task “with a sincere desire to avoid doing injustice to anyone, whether on the National or the Confederate side.”

Public Domain (P)2010 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

“The best [memoirs] of any general’s since Caesar.” (Mark Twain)

“One of the most unflinching studies of war in our literature.” (William McFeeley, Pulitzer Prize-winning biographer of Ulysses S. Grant)

I wish I could have met him

Where does Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

somewhere in the middle

What did you like best about this story?

Grant's snarky remarks about commanders who don't act

What does Robin Field bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Grant's dry sense of humor

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Even though I knew it was coming, I was really moved by General Lee's surrender. Union wins!

Any additional comments?

Grant was a man of action which is what the war needed. He thought the war was a waste of money and men and wanted to get it over with.

Wonderful

Charming, self effacing, and quite funny. And written under immense duress. Well done Mr. President.

Dull narration does not ruin this book

Any additional comments?

This autobiography appeared recently on The Guardian’s list of the 100 best non-fiction books. I’m not sure I’d go that far, but it is a clear, well-spoken account of Grant’s military life and involvement in the American Civil war and the attitudes and conditions that lead up to it beginning with the land-grab resulting in the Mexican war and annexation of Texas. The narration is clear but sadly flat and does little justice to the work. A better performance and broader examination of the Civil War can be had in Battle Cry of Freedom by James M. McPherson, read by Jonathan Davis. Another problematic performance in a very good book on the subject can be found in The Myth of the Lost Cause: Why the South Fought the Civil War and Why the North Won. It is written in the style of a lecture and read as dryly, but the detail and competence with which Edward Bonekemper demolishes confederate apologists and the white-washing of white supremacy is a worthy lesson in militant scholarship.

Wonderful Read

The personal Memoirs of Ulysses S Grant as read by Robin Field is A work of art. He was encouraged to write his memoirs being a man of integrity by his friend Samuel Clemons alias Mark.Twain.. This book was first published in 1885. Although I have not heard Preuident Grant speak, I found myself thinking as Robin Field was reading it was Grant speaking. I want to give Robin Field an A for the effort he put in the narration.Great job

Mississippi State University ironically is...

...the new home (11/17) of the Grant Presidential Library with a ten million dollar addition to the University's Mitchell Memorial Library and I can't wait to visit it after listening to Ron Chernow's recent biography of Grant and following that, these wonderful Memoirs. I thought i knew enough about Grant, but these two books made me realize I knew little about the man and a lot of what i thought I knew was wrong.
I was hesitant to listen to a book written not long before Grant died mostly because i thought the syntax of 19th c. language might be difficult to swallow for 29 hours. Much to my surprise, Grant's plain spoken Midwestern language sounded very contemporary and easy to listen to (even funny at times). Along those lines, the reader, Robin Field was magnificent. I can just imagine this is how Grant's voice must have sounded.
My only regret is that i didn't have some better maps to reference other than my Road Atlas, but that alone helped me with my ignorance of the Southern state's geography where his campaign's were fought, but that is something you have to put up with as a listener.

The Standard for Military Memoirs But...

Dwight D. Eisenhower modeled his own writing on this book. For generations this book set the standard for clear writing on military history. However, Grant's memoirs provide too many details on the battles of the Civil War to be enjoyed by a lay person who isn't following along with a map.

There are rumors that this book was edited by Samuel Clemens. The rumor is believable because the writing is clear and flows well. The portions of the book describing Grant's childhood through the beginning of the Civil War are accessible and enjoyable to read. It's like reading Tom Sawyer.

Unfortunately, the book becomes too detailed and complex for the casual reader after Grant gets to the Civil War. But if you are a Civil War history buff with a map handy, you'll probably love it.

Like listening to Grant himself

Robin Field reads these memoirs as if it is Grant himself. Extremely enjoyable book and quite appropriate for today's political climate.

Exhilarating book told in such vivid memory

General Grant goes beyond describing the war from memories known to our civil war soldiers.

An Individual reflects and grows to meet history

Good audio book for a cross country drive. Love hearing first hand from those that lived the history. Interesting to her his perspective on well know events that he directly or indirectly help shape.

Narrator not modulated to my perception of Grant’s voice

I had to ratchet up the speed of this recording to 1.3x. Field’s voice was not consistent to my judgment of an appropriate narrator would sound like. I would have expected a round gravely baritone voice. Field’s at 1.0x speed is unbearable. I will acknowledge that Fields did an admirable job enacting parts that arose. I spend such time on remarking on the Audible performance because Grant is a considerable figure in the Civil War and American History in the nineteenth century. Also, that his memoir is considered one of the most highly esteemed memoir in the genre. For that, it is disappointing that the producers of this recording did not take enough care in finding a suitably modulated voice that brings out the identity of Grant, the General of the Army of the Union Army, and the President of the United States. Also, that for Volume II, that he was a man who was pushing through an illness that would later kill him. I cannot tell whose memoir is better written, Grant’s or Sherman’s. Both are so very meaningful. I don’t think I identified one passive sentence written by Grant’s. At first, for about the first one hundred pages, the sentences remain in the same rhythmic pattern. The pages sound as if he is writing a report, which if one reads his Appendix that is his 1865 Report to Secretary of War Stanton, he doesn’t much deviate. The memoir, being a description of his military career, mostly, and his generalship during the Civil War, he never loosens up his writing style or its content. It’s all military. With seemingly all active sentences, it is engaging and entertaining reading. One gets to know a man and the men who he commanded. He was a man with a great responsibilities, challenges personally and professionally. A man who saw a great map and orchestrated the movement of his generals and their commands, coping with weak ones, and glorifying brave, energetic and intelligent ones, men he could trust, like Sherman. He was a brilliant General, a tough individual who coped with the weather, lack of sleep, lack of good food, enemy fire, slanderous press, and sabotage. His memoir is a report to us all. It is not an aggrandizement of his self, but a straight forward narrative with some honest assessments of himself, battle tactics and strategies, and his generals, yet when making an assessment of others he is magnanimous, concluding that an act or failure to act due to something out of their control. Sherman’s judgment of Grant was the very same to the point that he was protective of his friend. See, Sherman’s Memoir. I think that if one reads and listens to Grant’s memoir, and gets to know this man, one will be the better for it. I would also read Sherman’s.