When his voice finally abandoned him, Grant scribbled his thoughts in pencil on small slips of paper. Through it all, Grant persisted in honing his manuscript-editing, adding new pages and poring over proofs of his first volume-as he sat on the cottage porch on even the steamiest of days swaddled in blankets, a wool hat and a scarf covering his neck tumor, which was now “as big as a man’s two fists put together” according to the New York Sun. While Grant’s doctors gave him morphine only sparingly in order to keep his mind clear for writing, they swabbed his throat with cocaine to provide topical pain relief and used hypodermic needles to inject him with brandy during the worst of his coughing fits. “He endured great pain with incredible stoicism,” says Ben Kemp, operations manager at the U.S. The voice that once commanded armies could barely muster a whisper. With excruciating pain accompanying every swallow, Grant was unable to eat solid food. In a cottage on the slopes of Mount McGregor, Grant launched his final campaign to complete his tome. Following the advice of doctors who vouched for the salubrious power of pure mountain air, Grant decamped at the onset of summer from his Manhattan brownstone to an Adirondack resort north of Saratoga Springs. Even speaking, however, became laborious as his condition deteriorated. Grant penned his manuscript until his hand grew too feeble in the spring of 1885, forcing him to employ a stenographer. Grant reading on a house porch, thought to be the last photograph taken before his death, 1885.Īfro American Newspapers/Gado/Getty Images In war and in writing, Grant had the most amazing ability to marshal all his energy in the pursuit of a single goal.” In his home, he amassed tall stacks of orders and maps that helped him to recreate his most famous battles with minute fidelity.
#Ulysses s grant iv series#
“Grant approached his memoirs with the same grit and determination as he tackled his Civil War battles,” says Chernow, who also serves as executive producer of HISTORY’s documentary series “ Grant.” “As in those encounters, he was thorough and systematic, a real stickler for precision and the truth. In need of financial rescue himself after a series of failed investments, the debt-ridden Twain inked Grant to a contract with his newly launched publishing house and gave him a $1,000 check to cover living expenses.Įngaged in a furious race against time as the cancer attacked his body, Grant dug into his writing with military efficiency, churning out as many as 10,000 words in a single day. Now destitute, the former president finally agreed to cash in on his celebrity. įor years Twain had suggested that Grant pen his memoirs. “While we think of Grant as silent and reserved, he was a captivating raconteur with a dry wit and a ready fund of stories,” says Ron Chernow, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Grant.
Lurking behind the taciturn façade was a convivial storyteller who entertained friends such as Mark Twain with yarns of war and politics. Grant (1822-1885) sits (center, with top hat) for a family portrait with his wife, Julia Dent Grant, and their children and grandchildren at the family's seaside cottage in Long Branch, New Jersey, circa 1883.ĭivested of his property and possessions, Grant still retained something of great value-his recollections of past glories.
0 kommentar(er)
