The summer of 1885 was a scorcher, but that wasn’t the hot topic in America that year. On June 16, a national hero battling terminal cancer retreated to a small cottage in the cooler mountains of upstate New York in a valiant effort to finish his long awaited memoirs.
The famous Civil War general had spurned offers to write his memoirs for years, but circumstances had changed. In 1884, the same year his cancer was diagnosed, a Wall Street investment fund co-owned by his son Buck went bankrupt. Managing partner Ferdinand Ward was exposed for running a Ponzi scheme costing investors millions, which ruined the family finances of Ulysses S. Grant.
Confronted with the shame of bankruptcy and facing a slow and painful death, the dreaded thought of leaving his family penniless finally convinced him to write his life’s story.
New York newspapers reported daily on the exalted ex-president’s personal health battle as an anxious nation stood transfixed. The big question in mid-summer 1885 was, would the national hero known as “Unconditional Surrender” have enough time to finish his life’s story before cancer wrote his epilogue?
A Sudden Diagnosis
In June 1884, the popular ex-president cried out in pain when he bit into a peach. Thinking he’d been stung, he rinsed his mouth with water but told his wife Julia that the “water hurt him like liquid fire,” Grant biographer Ronald C. White wrote in “American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant.”
Grant’s personal physician, Dr. Fordyce Barker, was on his annual European trip until October, so Grant did his best to ignore his throat irritation for the next four months. Upon his return, Barker referred his famous patient to throat specialist Dr. John H. Douglas. Douglas knew Grant from when they were setting up field hospitals during the Civil War.
Douglas quickly diagnosed the disease and confirmed his suspicion after consulting with two other doctors. A tissue sample confirmed that the problem was cancer, but not cancer of the throat—it was carcinoma of the right tonsillar pillar. This was before radiotherapy, tracheotomy, or other medical treatments were available.
Upon learning of his diagnosis, Grant chose not to share it with his wife and children. A troubled Julia Grant knew something wasn’t right with her husband and paid Dr. Douglas a personal visit. Upon learning the diagnosis, she “still could not believe the malady was a fatal one,” White wrote.
A Literary Talent
The Century Magazine, a publication popular for its commentary on national issues, had approached Grant about writing for them in the spring of 1884. Motivated by his bleak financial plight, Grant agreed to contribute at the rate of $500 per article based on his experiences at the Battles of Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, and the Wilderness.
Under the tutelage of associate editor Robert U. Johnson, Grant drew from his field journals to craft a first-person narrative of “what he planned, thought, saw, said and did.” Pleased by the early response to his literary efforts, Grant warmed to the idea of writing his memoirs. Publishers immediately scrambled to sign the ex-president for the rights to his autobiography.
The publisher and editors at The Century Magazine thought they had the inside track on Grant’s memoirs, but a surprise bidder named Mark Twain had other ideas. A longtime admirer of Grant and his storytelling, Twain was thrilled that Grant had consented to writing his memoirs.
Upon learning the publishing terms Grant was being offered by Century, Twain immediately offered his friend an exclusive deal with the publishing house he invested in, Charles L. Webster & Company. Twain offered an advance of $50,000, plus a 20 percent royalty on sales or 70 percent of the total net proceeds. Grant wisely chose the latter.
Racing Against Time
With contract in hand, Grant buckled down to undertake what he knew would be his last campaign. The nation’s 18th president knew he had one more fight on his hands, and time was short.
Due to the oppressive heat that summer, Dr. Douglas recommended that Grant retire to the cooler climate at Mount McGregor in the Adirondack Mountains.
Grant had pledged early on to write 10,000 words a day in longhand, a feat made more challenging by his cancer’s progression. He wrote for four hours every morning on unlined paper, sipping the cocaine water prescribed to soothe his inflamed tongue. In the afternoon, he would edit his own writing; the evening hours were occupied with planning the next day’s writing and reading aloud in a raspy voice that day’s efforts for Julia to offer suggestions.
When Grant lost his ability to speak altogether, he would communicate with family and visitors by writing notes. White wrote in his biography that Grant would sometimes use Twain as a sounding board. Twain marveled at his friend’s courage and perseverance. “General Grant was a sick man, but he wrought upon his memoirs like a well one and made steady and sure progress,” Twain wrote in his own autobiography.
After Grant lost 40 pounds, Twain sometimes doubted whether his friend would have time to finish his memoirs, but Grant promised he would finish his work. Ignoring the public’s morbid fascination with his situation, the former president wrote up to 50 pages a day.
Grant completed his 500-word preface three weeks before his passing. At more than 600 pages, his memoir sold on a subscription basis as a two-book set and was an instant bestseller. Grant’s biography sold over 300,000 copies in its first printing, earning Julia Grant $200,000 and ultimately $450,000, or $12 million in today’s currency.
Grant’s biography is viewed today as America’s first celebrity memoir, and critics still consider it one of the best literary achievements of any American president.
American caricaturist Thomas Nast said of Grant’s memoirs: “As an intimate personal friend of General Grant, it was initially hard for me to read his book, but his words bring forth his spirit, his humanity, his goodness. He wrote as he talked, simple, unadorned, manly.”
This article was originally published in American Essence magazine.
