By Charles Bracelen Flood
Da Capo Press, $27.50, 320 pages
ISBN 9780306820281

Grant was a warrior. He proved as much during the Civil War and his presidency – and, most poignantly, during the last year of his life. Unbeknownst to many until near the end of his final year, Grant was stricken with mouth, throat, and tongue cancer that often left him unable to swallow, chew, or even breathe without pain. He twice shrugged off death, much to the surprise of his doctors and, in fact, to the country, after erroneous newspaper reports of his death leaked out. Many would ask what kept him going, and Flood has given us the answer: he was writing his memoirs.

This task took on special significance after Grant was left essentially penniless after falling victim to a Ponzi scheme. Grant had mainly left the work of telling his life’s story to others until he saw it was perhaps the only way he could provide for his wife after his death. It was that unwillingness to fail, that intense desire to see his beloved Julia cared for, that kept him writing.

Grant finished his memoirs four days before he died. Flood’s account of Grant’s final year does justice to his subject’s heroic story.

Reviewed by Margo Orlando Littell