- Two of the most famous Americans of the 19 century, Mark Twain and Ulysses S. Grant’s formed a surprising friendship.
- The Century Magazine offered Grant a book contract with a 10 percent royalty, but Grant's friend Mark Twain, understanding how bad Grant's financial condition was, made him an offer for his memoirs which paid an unheard-of 70 percent royalty. To provide for his family, Grant worked intensely on his memoirs at his home in New York City.
Twain and Ulysses S. Grant met in 1866 and later became friends after Grant's presidency, often 'exchanging views on the world and America's role in it.' Twain encouraged Grant to write a memoir and ended up publishing it via his own publishing house. The two friends fought over royalty payments with 'each refusing to profit at the other's. Interesting factoid, discovered in the Chernow book, was that Mark Twain was his publisher and the man that got Grant to complete his memoirs. Mark Twain developed a marketing plan that employed veterans to sell subscriptions and was able to deliver an initial royalty check of $200K to Grants widow.
“One day he put aside his pencil and said there was nothing more to do.” That is how Mark Twain described Ulysses S. Grant finishing, three days before his agonizing death from throat cancer, the autobiography he had spent the last year of his life writing. Grant had done it for the money; a swindle had left him destitute. Twain, a friend and admirer, offered generous terms to publish it. But when, on July 20, 1885, Grant placed his pencil atop a bureau in the room in which he worked and slept, what he put to bed as it were, was a two-volume 1,215 page masterpiece. And when it sprang up, five months later, in the form of 610,000 single volumes costing an average of $4 each, The Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant made his widow a very, very rich woman. How America’s greatest 19th author. and America’s greatest 19th century general, came together to produce a book which has never gone out of print, is told here…
Three quarters of a million men died in the war that made him famous, but when all was over, it was the cigars that killed him. He smoked 20 a day for 20 years and that, and a peach, brought him down. When, on June 2, 1884 Ulysses S. Grant bit into a peach, he felt a sudden sharp pain – as if a shard from its pit had lodged in his throat. Rinsing with water made it even worse – it felt, he said, like swallowing molten lead. But it wasn’t just his throat that was on fire. A month earlier, his reputation went up in flames when a New York swindler to whom he had lent his illustrious name, made off with $16 million dollars – of which $750,000, was Grant’s. On May 6th, then, the ex-Lieutenant General and General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States; ex-4 star General of the Army of the United States; and ex-two time President of the United States, had exactly $80 in his pocket and the $130 his wife pulled from a cookie jar. That summer, he went to work – writing, writing, writing, his wife recalled, for their bread. His friend Mark Twain, advising him on contracts, convinced him finally to sign one with him, on February 27, 1885. And so Grant, making the bravest fight of his life – against cancer, destitution, pain – wrote every day until, literally speechless, he finished on July 20th. Three days later, he died. When, in December, the Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant came out, it was hailed a masterpiece. And two months after that, Mark Twain handed Grant’s widow, Julia, what was then the largest royalty ever seen: $200,000. These two Twain letters, tell that story…
10. Grant narrowly missed Lincoln’s assassination
Grant had been invited to go to Ford theater with President Lincoln but he and his wife Julia decided to travel to New Jersey to visit their children instead. Had he attended, he may have been a target as well.
9. Both of Grant’s parents witnessed his presidency
It may not seem like a big deal today, but Ulysses Grant was the first president to have both his parents living as he entered office.
8. Grant couldn’t stand the sight of blood
Although he witnessed some of the bloodiest battles in history, Grant could not stand the sight of blood. Rare steak nauseated him and he was known to cook his meat to the point of charring.
7. Grant graduated from West Point
Grant was one of only three presidents to graduate from a military academy. He graduated from West Point in 1843.
6. Grant was a cigar lover
Grant used around seven to ten cigars a day, although many of them he did not smoke, chewing on them instead. After a reporter wrote that Grant liked cigars, people began to send them to him as gifts. He received over 20,000, which may have contributed to his throat cancer.
5. Grant made a deal with Mark Twain
After his presidency, Grant lost all his savings to a shady investment partner, leaving his family with nearly nothing. At the time, presidents were not given pensions and Grant had already forfeited his military pension when he became president. Mark Twain offered Grant a generous deal to write his memoirs and while terminally ill with cancer, Grant finished just days before his death. The memoirs sold over 300,000 copies and earned his family over $450,000. In 1958, Congress passed legislation establishing a pension for presidents.
4. Grant’s Tomb is record setting
Us Grant Mark Twain
The body of Ulysses S. Grant lies in Riverside Park in New York City. He is buried beside his wife in Grant’s Tomb, the largest mausoleum in North America.
Mark Twain Ulysses Grant
3. Ulysses S. Grant is not his real name
Us Grant By Mark Twain
President Grant’s real name was Hiram Ulysses Grant. At the age of 17, he secured a nomination to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point through his Congressman, Thomas Hamer. Apparently confused with Grant’s mothers maiden name of Simpson, Hamer mistakenly nominated him as Ulysses S. Grant. The academy would not accept any name other than what was on the nomination form so Grant adopted the new name as his own. Contrary to what some may believe, the S. does not stand for anything at all.
2. Grant was a compassionate man
When Grant accepted the surrender of Confederate forces by his rival Robert E. Lee in April 1865, he generously allowed Confederate soldiers to retain their weapons and horses and return to their homes.
Grant’s wife’s family were slave owners and Grant himself owned a slave named William Jones, given to him by his father-in-law. At a time when Grant could have badly used the money from selling Jones, he signed a document that freed him instead.
1. Grant liked life in the fast lane
Ulysses S Grant Mark Twain
As president, Grant received a speeding ticket by a police officer who failed to recognize him. He was fined for driving his horse too fast through the streets of D.C.