BOOK DESCRIPTION: 2 volumes complete published in 1885-1886, each 8vo., 584 & 647 pgs, frontispieces, maps, plates, index. Gilt decorated green cloth with gilt titled covers and spines and with medallions. First Edition. CONDITION DESCRIPTION: Each volume has minor shelf rubbing on edges and spine ends; gilt bright; overall VG+. Vol. 1 (1885) interior with front hinge repair, else clean and tight. Vol. 2 (1886) is clean and tight. Both have small inked previous owner s name on upper corner of front endpapers. Now each with clear mylar wrappers. CONTENTS DESCRIPTION: Very nice and attractive set of the outstanding memoirs of the famous Union Army General and field commander. REFERENCES: DONR II 1986; MULLENS & REED #35: Bruce Catton places Grant s memoirs on the top of his list of Civil War classics Ralph Newman states: No Union list of personal narratives could possibly begin without the story of the victorious general. A truly remarkable work, not only in the military field, but as a work of literature. The book itself was the result of General Grant s last and greatest victory his fight against death itself . NEVINS II pg 59: Written frantically while in a race with death, these recollections rank with the best of the Civil War period. EISNER 492: Grant s memoirs comprise one of the most valuable writings by a military commander in history. The story of his driving force on writing the book against his struggle with cancer is well known. Although pushed into the project and supported in part by Samuel L. Clemens and others, Grant composed the work on his own, and it seems clear from the famously curious spelling what was retained that the work was only lightly copyedited. The work is genuinely that of the commander. As such, it is valuable in its scope, its plain and clear analysis and language, and its broad conclusions about the conduct of the war. Grant the person may have been terribly quiet, but he was not so on paper.
