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Ulysses S. Grant's Heroic Last Year
by Charles Bracelen Flood
Shortly after losing all of his wealth in a terrible 1884 swindle, Ulysses S. Grant learned he had terminal throat and mouth cancer. Destitute and dying, Grant began to write his memoirs to save his family from permanent financial ruin.
As Grant continued his work, suffering increasing pain, the American public became aware of this race between Grant's writing and his fatal illness. Twenty years after his respectful and magnanimous demeanor toward Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, people in both the North and the South came to know Grant as the brave, honest man he was, now using his famous determination in this final effort. Grant finished Memoirs just four days before he died in July 1885.
Published after his death by his friend Mark Twain, Grant's Memoirs became an instant bestseller, restoring his family's financial health and, more importantly, helping to cure the nation of bitter discord. More than any other American before or since, Grant, in his last year, was able to heal this - the country's greatest wound.
"A moving if painful portrait of a dying national hero." - Publishers Weekly
"A lucid, often somber account of the sad but noble decline of Ulysses S. Grant… A welcome addition to the literature surrounding Grant and his time." - Kirkus Reviews
"Flood's book is an excellent read about a little explored aspect of General Grant, and is recommended to those with a passion for American history and specifically the Civil War." - The Waterline
"Charles Bracelen Flood has painted a moving and illuminating portrait of Ulysses Grant's grace as the dying general faced possible ruin. Grant is so important, yet he somehow seems always on the periphery of the American mind. Flood's excellent new book should help put Grant where he belongs: in the center of our memory." - Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Lion
"An unsurpassed account of Grant's final year. Mr. Flood has written not only the definitive study, but also the most readable. A wonderful book." - Jean Edward Smith, author of the Pulitzer Prize-finalist, Grant
"Charles Bracelen Flood has now set his deft and discerning pen to the story of General U. S. Grant's heroic effort during the last year of his life in writing his famous memoirs. Anyone with as much as a grain of interest in the nation's history will derive both profit and pleasure from Flood's work." - Charles P. Roland, author of An American Iliad: The Story of the Civil War
"Seldom if ever have I read a book that plunges so deeply – and so masterfully – into the human side of a major historical figure. When that figure is a man as laconic and private as Ulysses S. Grant, the achievement is even more remarkable. Charles Bracelen Flood has combined his talents as a novelist and historian to create an irresistible book." - Thomas Fleming, author of The Secret Trial of Robert E. Lee
This information about Grant's Final Victory was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Charles Bracelen Flood is the author of twelve previous books, including the bestselling Lee: The Last Years and Grant and Sherman.
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