Tag Archives: us grant

Perret on Grant

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Thanks to Google’s Books service, I went from a quick consultation of this book to reading a good portion of it online. The first few chapters are available in their entirety – as the book progresses more and more are left out, but it’s enough to gauge the readability, and this one’s very readable. Like Grant himself, it’s workmanlike – not a lot of literary flourishes, here – but genial. Several reviewers ravaged it with one stars, complaining of off-by-a-day dates or lack of tactical military understanding, but I can excuse the former if they’re minor, and the latter usually bores me to tears. My historical preference is for biography, and Grant comes back to life through the anecdotes and quotes Geoffrey Perret provides. If you’re a Grant fan, pick this one up.

Grant, Man of Peace

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This Christmas, I treated myself to a few wonderful items from the PBS online store‘s bumper sale. (Caveat emptor: They will spam you endlessly if you buy anything. Spam is the pledge break of the digital age.) Ken Burns box set, his excellent Lewis & Clark series, American Experience’s Abraham & Mary Lincoln series (also fabulous), and the AE’s Lee & Grant box set, which I threw in on a whim because it was deep-discounted. The Grant set was terrific; broken into two discs for Grant the Soldier and Grant the President, they really gave you a feel for the quiet, retiring and kindly (if wholly inept as a politician) man.

My favourite quote was from a pre-war play-wrestling ritual with his young sons:

“Mister, do you want to fight?” Fred would ask, when his
father came home from the store.

“I am a person of peace; but I will not be hectored by a person
of your size,” Grant would reply.

I found the citation, oddly, in a “free book” which probably shouldn’t be free, as it was published in 1959. Still, it looks to be an excellent read, so take advantage: The General’s Wife: The Life of Mrs Ulysses S Granthttp://www.archive.org/details/generalswifethel010870mbp

More Casting News!

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Again from The AV Club’s Newswire, more casting news on the instantly-awesome-and-highly-anticipated Steven Spielberg Lincoln movie: Jared Harris will be playing U.S. Grant. I was a huge fan of Harris’ late father, Richard, and Jared did a fantastic job on Mad Men. I am curious to hear his American accent, though, because the closest he came on the TV show was this.

Luckily, he’s enough of a chameleon to pull of Ulys’ look. Check out this headshot! Slam on a shapeless felt hat and cram a cigar stub in his mouth, and he’s pretty close to the real thing.

Jared Harris to play Ulysses S. Grant

Jared Harris to play Ulysses S. Grant

The Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant

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I first read Grant’s Memoirs as a teenager, and remember them as being both engaging and accessible. As one who was (and is, to this day) easily put off by the flowery, verbose prose common to novels from the Victorian era, it was refreshing to read Grant’s simple and conversational writing. You feel you’re getting the essence of the man; Plain and taciturn, yet exuding a deep strength of character and a warm humanism. Judging by the personality demonstrated here, Grant would have been a nice guy to share a beer with, or – knowing what we do of Grant’s foibles – perhaps a lemonade instead.

The Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant are available as a free download from Project Gutenberg.