The volumes were written in the last year of Grant's life, amid increasing pain from terminal throat cancer and against the backdrop of his personal bankruptcy at the hands of an early Ponzi scheme.

Understanding that sales of the book would restore the Grant family's finances and provide for his widow, Twain created a unique marketing system designed to reach millions of veterans with a patriotic appeal just as the famous general's death was being mourned.

By way of comparison, the memoirs of Grant's colleague William Tecumseh Sherman, published in 1876, were an immense financial success for their author, selling 25,000 copies during its first decade in print.

[1][2] Despite being explicitly written for money, and with a focus on those aspects of Grant's life most likely to induce sales, the combination of an honest man exploited in a financial scheme and then marked for death by cancer lent the Memoirs immense contemporary interest.

[8] This proved disastrous, as Ward had used the firm as a Ponzi scheme, taking investors' money and spending it on personal items, including a mansion in Connecticut and a brownstone in New York City.

The essays were well received by critics and in 1876 the editor of Century Magazine, Robert Underwood Johnson, suggested Grant expand them into a memoir, as William Tecumseh Sherman had recently done to great acclaim.

Facing his own mortality and the prospect of his family's destitution after his death, Grant approached Century with a proposal to publish his personal memoirs, serially and then in bound volumes.

After finishing his review Twain declared the term giving Grant 10% of all sales was insultingly low and amounted to exploitation of the former president's dire situation.

Grant felt a personal loyalty to the executives of Century, and considered it dishonorable to back out of his contract after all details had been agreed upon and papers drawn up.

Without a publisher's capital in play to cover printing and distribution, subscription gave the author far more power in determining their eventual share of sales.

[10] Knowing the former general's reputation for stubbornness, Twain privately fretted that 24 hours would not be enough time to convince Grant to change his mind.

Twain provided literary and copy editing at all stages of the book's composition, often offering advice on a page-by-page basis as he sat next to his furiously scribbling friend.

[8] Throughout his career Grant had repeatedly told highly detailed stories of his military experiences, sometimes making slight mistakes in terms of dates and locations.

As a hardscrabble farmer in St. Louis just before the war he had kept his neighbors spellbound until midnight while they "listen[ed] intently to his vivid narrations of Army experiences.

"[14] Grant had told and retold his war stories so many times that writing his Memoirs was often simply a matter of repetition and polish instead of a more typical summarization of his recollections.

He was in constant pain from his illness and was sometimes beset by choking episodes that only abated after Grant had vomited a large quantity of blood.

The cancer spread through his body and at his doctor's urging in June 1885 to make his last weeks more comfortable the family moved to a cottage in Mount MacGregor, New York.

Badeau left before the project was complete, having disputed with Grant and his family concerning how much he would be paid and how he would be credited for his research, editing, and fact-checking.

This led Badeau to initiate and spread the persistent rumor (before the book was even published) that Twain ghostwrote Grant's memoirs.

Grant's writing has been praised for its conciseness and clarity—a sharp contrast from contemporary Civil War memoirs, which tended to reflect the Victorian fondness for elaborate language.

With regard to the Mexican–American War, Grant recorded his belief that it had been waged unjustly: Generally, the officers of the army were indifferent whether the annexation was consummated or not; but not so all of them.

[18]His account of Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House is particularly notable: When I had left camp that morning I had not expected so soon the result that was then taking place, and consequently was in rough garb.

After the conversation had run on in this style for some time, General Lee called my attention to the object of our meeting, and said that he had asked for this interview for the purpose of getting from me the terms I proposed to give his army.

Ulysses S. Grant sought to deliver his moral, political, economic and social argument for waging the war against the South in his Personal Memoirs.

As the commander of the Union army and a two-term president, he had a unique perspective on the war that interested both the public and historical scholars, as they wanted to hear his side of the story.

In volume 1, he describes his family background and points to his simple upbringing as the reason for his solid, restrained virtues of a normal Northerner.

[24] Grant used his Personal Memoirs as a way to respond to negative criticism immediately following the war, especially present in his description of the Battle of Shiloh.

However, Grant felt this was a harsh evaluation and sought to improve the public opinion of himself and defend the fact he believed he was a simple and fair man.

He stated, "Up to the Battle of Shiloh, I, as well as thousands of other citizens, believed that the rebellion against the Government would collapse suddenly and soon, if decisive victory could be gained over any of its armies.

Perret argued that Grant in fact liked West Point, had few reservations at the time about the Mexican War and was a very good junior officer.