Ulysses S. Grant: The Unlikely Hero (Eminent Lives)

176 Pages·2004·0.59 MB·English

by  Michael Korda

U l y s s e s S. G r a n t
The Unlikely Hero
Michael Korda
E M I N E N T L I V E S
v
For Margaret, with love—
and for Christopher Lord, Roger Cooper, and Russell Taylor,
in memory of Budapest, October–November 1956
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he’ll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day.
—Henry V, act 4, scene 3
I read but few lives of great men because biographers do not, as a
rule, tell enough about the formative period of life. What I want to
know is what a man did as a boy.
—Ulysses S. Grant

Contents
Epigraph iii
Chapter One
IN THE SUMMER OF 2003 Ulysses S. Grant
made news... 1
Chapter Two
GRANT’S VIRTUES —his reserve, his quiet
determination, his courage in the... 13
Chapter Three
IN ENGLAND THERE WAS a vast social
gulf between cavalr y … 29
Chapter Four
GRANT HAD WAITED a long time to marry
Julia, and … 47
Chapter Five
GRANT MAY HAVE BEEN a colonel, but he
still ha d … 59
Chapter Six
NO SOONER DID GRANT have what he
wanted —or appeared t o … 79
Chapter Seven
GRANT ARRIVED IN WASHINGTON on
March 8, 1864— the last time… 93 93
Chapter Eight
MANY BIOGRAPHERS of Grant have
suggested that his career afte r… 111
Chapter Nine
IN 1877 RETIRING PRESIDENTS did not
have the benefits that. .. 137
Chapter Ten
RUINED AND SADDLED WITH DEBT,
Grant was, in some respect s,... 145 45
Epilogue: Why Grant?
Notes
About the Author
Other Books by Michael Korda
Credits
Cover
Copyright
About the Publisher
Eminent Lives, brief biographies by distinguished authors
on canonical figures, joins a long tradition in this lively
form, from Plutarch’s Lives to Vasari’s Lives of the Painters,
Dr. Johnson’s Lives of the Poets to Lytton Strachey’s Eminent
Victorians. Pairing great subjects with writers known for
their strong sensibilities and sharp, lively points of view,
the Eminent Lives are ideal introductions designed to appeal
to the general reader, the student, and the scholar. “To preserve
a becoming brevity which excludes everything that is
redundant and nothing that is significant,” wrote Strachey:
“That, surely, is the first duty of the biographer.”
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Peter Kramer on Sigmund Freud
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GENERAL EDITOR: JAMES ATLAS