THE PERSONAL MEMOIRS OF JULIA DENT GRANT 

(Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant)

By Julia D. Grant, John Y. Simon, ed.


Review by Clinton Shatzer

This was the first book ever to be written by a President's wife, yet it took the longest to be published (about 85 years after completion). Julia began work on her memoirs around 1889, reciting anecdotes from memory (no diaries or notes) as one of her sons transcribed.  She dictated her memories aloud because of failing eyesight, giving the tone a conversational feel.  

Although she used no notes nor conducted any research, the memoirs are still highly accurate as to events, names, places and dates, despite decades having passed between the dates of events and their retelling  (There are some factual errors, which the editor corrects in the notes, but these are all inconsequential). 

Topics covered in the book include:

-          Julia's idyllic childhood as a daughter of a wealthy planter

-          Her courtship with U. S. Grant

-          Life as a newlywed Army wife

-          Grant's decision to leave the army and try farming

-          Grant's return to the army and his Civil War success

-          Post-war politics and the possibilities of a third term as President

-          Tours of the deep South and around the world

-          Business fraud and a brush with poverty

-          Grant's terminal illness 

Via private conversations quoted in the book, the reader gets a much better sense of the personalities of General and Mrs. Grant that do not come through in the biographies I have read.  Both had good senses of humor and it is clear that they had a very happy and successful marriage.  Julia comes across as highly intelligent and witty, but as a bit of a manipulator with a Type A personality.   She reports several instances where she injected herself into confrontations with experts about situations she knew little about.  Her husband usually intervenes to smooth things out.  I'm sure that she was humored by many important eye-rolling people.


 Julia sugarcoats and comes to her husband's defense on many topics.  There is no discussion of the personal challenges faced by Grant prior to his military success, other than to refute allegations by others.  About one-third of the book is dedicated to the experiences of their post-Presidency world tour.  It reads a bit like a travelogue describing all the places they saw.  The tour seems to have had no objectives or plan, with destinations and length of stays decided on a whim.  Julia placed so much emphasis on this part of her life because it was one of her happiest.  They were feted everywhere they went. I found the descriptions of the parties and shopping expeditions a bit tedious after a while, but I  greatly enjoyed the rest of the book.

 Julia began her memoirs as a form of grief therapy after her husband's death.  Her objective was to complete General Grant's story by including topics frequently omitted from Grant biographies: his marriage and family life; the White House years; and the world tour.  

Initially, these were intended only for her grandchildren, but as her husband's memoirs became so successful, she sought to publish them.  Alas, she received no offers that approached her financial criteria.  The manuscript stayed within the family after Julia's death in 1902.  Although used by Bruce Catton and other authors without direct attribution, most scholars were unaware of its existence.  Julia's great-granddaughters finally agreed to publish the entire manuscript 70 years later. 

There are numerous biographies of Ulysses Grant on the market.  This one is unique in that it offers an inside view told in a conversational style.  One comes away with the feeling of having a long conversation with a good friend.

 

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Clinton Shatzer is a member of the Civil War Round Table of the District of Columbia (www.cwrtdc.org) and the Chesapeake CWRT (https://ccwr.net/).  His intense interest in Civil War history began when he purchased a children's book written by Fletcher Pratt at his elementary school's PTA book fair in 1958.  Mr. Shatzer states, "I became interested in [Julia's] book after seeing it quoted numerous times while reading a biography of President Grant."

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