Celebrity, grant refused to trumpet his accomplish. S in print. When did you decide to start that way in your book . When i started the book i ran into a friend who said to me, how can you write a great biography of someone who wrote a great autobiography and that stopped me dead in my tracks. I thought about that comment for many days. Then i realized that it actually helped to define the direction of my book because i realized that what my job was to do as a biographer was to zero in on the silences and the evasions in grants memoirs. I should say grants book, its not really an autobiography. Its a military memoir. Covers the mexican war. He covers the civil war. Theres not a word, for instance, about that small thing, his twoterm presidency and the remaining events in his life. But i ended up again zeroing in on those things that grant did not want to talk about, particularly his lifelong struggle with alcoholism and his repeated business failures. I want to start out concentrating on the end of his life and go to, i believe it was 1883, he had been a twoterm president , as you point out. And he sthroined ice, you also tell that story. What is it . Its cascading series of crises that happened to him. 1883. So hes about 61 years old. He and his wife julia were living in manhattan in a townhouse, east 66th street just off fifth avenue, he comes home, i think it was christmas eve, he turns on this icy pavement to give the drive aerochristmas tip and he a christmas tip and he trips and mayber to a muscle in his thigh or dislocated his hip but he was never quite the same again. For weeks, maybe months afterwards, hes hobbling around on crutches. And then one terrible thing after another happens to him. Grant and ward. About four or five years before he died he entered into a partnership with a young man named Ferdinand Ward. Ward was only 29 years old but already a legendary character on wall street. He was lionized as the Young Napoleon of finance. He has entered into a Business Partnership with grants younger son, buck. Grant throughout his life was an incurably naive person, particularly when it came to business dealings. Seems like every man has xray vision. The name of the shingle is grant and ward but the person who not only is doing the business transactions but who alone has the power to sign check, who alone has access to the vault that has these securities is Ferdinand Ward. Grant is providing window dressing. Because it has the great Union General on it. Sadly grant was so trusted, so enamored of young ward grant invested his life savings in the company. His three sons invested their life savings, numerous cousins, sisters, friends and confederate veterans invested their life savings. Grant showed , he went to work every day, to wall street reported there regularly, very proud. This firm seemed to be the most successful on wall street. In fact he should have been more skeptical because Ferdinand Ward was promising people rewards of 5 to 20 per month. Not per year which would have been amazing enough but per month. This was clearly a warning flag. This wont surprise listeners, it turned out to be a massive ponzi scheme and he turned out on the Bernie Madoff of his day. Grant who thought he was worth millions woke one day to find out he was worth 80. He went to vanderbilt for money . Right before the firm went bust, ferdinand came to him in a panic saying he needed to borrow money eric ward claimed the money was needed to bail out the Marine National bank the major ank of the firm. In fact it was to bail out grant and word. So grant grabs his crutches, goes off to see vanderbilt, who gives him a check. Grant assures him hell be repaid in 24 to 48 hours only to find out the firm went bust. Grant was so innocent he later said that even on the night before grant and ward went bust, and this whole sham was exposed, had no inkling there was anything wrong. He said he had such implicit faith in Ferdinand Ward it took him a day or two to believe in the reality of what had happened. He kept imagining, as did his son, that Ferdinand Ward would suddenly materialize and explain the whole thing. Could be shrewd in sizing up his fellow generals and the opposing generals. It is something of a mystery how a man who can be so perceptive about other people in certain situations, but in business situations seem to lose all sense of skepticism or reality. Host when did he discover he had cancer . Mr. Chernow it was about a year before he died. It was really just a few months after the whole grant and ward debacle. In the beginning, there was something preening and egotistical about writing your memoirs. All of the civil war generals had rushed to publish their memoirs for two reasons. One to cash in on it and to put in their preferred version of history. Those two events being wiped out financially and then being diagnosed with cancer of the throat and tongue. Very excruciating and terminal. It made grant think that when he really died that his wife julia would be left destitute. It was at that point that he decided to write his memoirs. I dont think he initially realized what the commercial potential of that was. The first publisher he spoke to from the century magazine who proposed writing his memoirs said, you think anyone would be nterested . The publisher said, are you kidding, general . Do you not think people would be interested in napoleons battles . We are jumping ahead, but it ended up earning 450,000, which would be 10 or 20 million today. It was published posthumously. It was probably the greatest bestseller of the 19th century. The only one that mightve rivaled in totaled sales would have been uncle toms cabin. It sold more copies, more quickly than any other book in the 19th century. Grant slightly underestimated the commercial potential of the book. Host how did he discover that he had cancer . Mr. Chernow he and julia had a cottage in long branch, new ersey. That was kind of a fashionable watering hole in its day. In june 1884, they were sitting out on the piazza and julia served him a plate of peaches and he bit into a peach and he said it stung me. She thought maybe there was an insect or something and it literally stung him. It was the first that he realized he had the cancer. He tried to, at that moment, rinse out his mouth. He thought that would remove the sensation. This is a very, very excruciating form of cancer. He made the statement that swallowing a glass of water was so painful that it was like swallowing lead. Anything that he ate or drank was difficult to swallow and digest. He was on the shore in new ersey. His next door neighbor had a doctor visiting and he examined him and told grant that he should consult his physician at ome. Grants doctor was traveling so he did not go to his doctor for four months. It is really rather amazing. I wonder in the book and to you right now, was this a case of toicism . Because grant was able to endure an enormous amount of pain throughout his life without complaining. Was this more of a childlike fear of been news and escaping from it, we will never know. Given the fact that there were rather severe symptoms and he had a nagging cough that did not go away. It was understandable. Cough that goes on for several months we would all be curious of whats going on, particularly if they are accompanied by very painful swallowing. It just got worse and worse. Host how many cigars did he smoke a day . Mr. Chernow during the civil war, probably his first great victory. He surrounded fort donaldson and armies surrounded 14,000 troops. N the accounts of that battle, grant had a cigar stub, which he had gotten from an admiral at breakfast that morning and was riding around the battlefield with this cigar stub. It was featured in different journalistic accounts of the battle. It was the First Union Victory celebrated in all of the northern cities. People out of the blue began to send him cigars. In fact, find cigars. They sent him 10,000 cigars. Grant was more of a pipe smoker, but he had oral cravings throughout his life. If off spree supply of 10,000 cigar you smoke. He began to smoke 20 cigars a day. At the end of the civil war, with a great feeling of virtue, he announced he was cutting down his consumption to 10 cigars a day. He was pretty much smoking the entire day. The last year of his life, he gave up the cigars and said it is very difficult to say goodbye to these fragrant things that have been a solace and comfort to me throughout the years. He really loved smoking, but i dont think there is any question that it was a cigar consumption that led to the cancer. One of his doctors was convinced that it was the cigars and told him to cut out the cigars. Host once he was diagnosed with tongue cancer, what could they do for him . Mr. Chernow in terms of treatment, very little. There was no treatment, they would keep swabbing out his mouth and trying to remove debris and cancerous tissue. There were a lot of Different Things that they could do in terms of pain relief. They used cocaine because it ould anesthetize the area. Time went on and he used opiates. One of the interesting things was that he started writing the memoir and found that as soon as he ate or drank anything he would be in agony. As soon as he was in agony, he would have to start taking morphine and other opiates. Hat would cloud his brain. What he got into the habit of doing work great courage and fortitude , he would go for four or five hours at stretch without eating or drinking anything and that was not simply to avoid the pain of the swallowing but i think even more importantly not to have to take any painkillers that might interfere with his mental clarity. I dont know if any book has ever been composed under such horrific circumstances. It is a masterpiece. Even mark twain said the style or flow no man can improve upon it. Twain thought it was such a great military memoir that it deserved to stand alongside caesars commentary. Many commentators and readers ince then have agreed. Host go back to when you said he was 61 and he slipped and fell and had to go on crutches and died two years later. Then he loses all of that money and is down to 80 in his account. He was in a house on 66 st in ew york. What did he do if he had no money . Mr. Chernow they close up the house on east 66 street and fired the servants. He did get a 1000 gift from a veteran in upstate new york. He said this 1000 is for Services Rendered for april 18, 1865. He was a veteran who wanted to thank grant. Before he started working, he did articles for the century magazine called battles and eaders of the civil war. They had about four different battles. When he wrote the first one, i think it was on shiloh. He sends it off to the editors. Grant had never written professionally before. The editors are disappointed and dispatch an editor to speak with him. The editor said that grants first article is a very dry and bloodless one. One of his civil war military reports with no life. The young editor says, kind of enliven it with your personal impressions and observations and impressions of people. Grant had been a very good writer. He wrote every speech he wrote s president. He prided himself on his writing. This came as a revelation that one could gossip a little bit and have fun a little bit, and set the scene and describe the personalities that he rewrites. He is the pupil of the genius. He rewrites it. He will have the moment to experience the joys of authorship where he suddenly feels the freedom and where our imaginations and emotions come into play. That happens to grant. It is considered a classic because of its literary style. The prose is beautiful, the descriptions are extremely clear and accurate. It is very moving. It has a very becoming modesty about it and profound. Twain was amazed that grant wrote the entire appomattox section in one sitting. He said grant wrote that and we are not changing anything. It was 9000 words written in one sitting. He says to his friends, even on a good day, i cannot write 5000 words. Grant is just an amazing erson. It is character revealed under the pressure of circumstance. Grant said at the end of his life just how improbable it was. He said he never imagined that i would get any high grade and he ends up a general of the army. He never imagined he would go into politics and became a twoterm president. He said he never imagine he would be an author and now his book is going off to the press. Under the pressure of circumstances, he was extraordinary in many ways. Something would happen that would force him to do something completely new and unaccustomed. He would do it brilliantly. I find that it is an inspirational story for all of us, that we really do not know our own potential until we are tested. Grant did not know his own potential. I tell the story in the book that when he left west point he graduated in the middle of his class. His highest ambition was to be an assistant math professor. Not a full math professor, but an assistant math professor. He ended up having one million soldiers under his command who ended up being the only twoterm president between jackson and wilson who would write one of the most famous memoirs of the english language. I dont think anyone could have been more surprised by grants life than grant. Host you mentioned a woman by the name of Michelle Crowell in the Manuscript Division at the library of congress. We grabbed a camera and went ver to meet her. I want to run a couple of things that she had to say so we can see with the actual manuscript look like. What the grant family gave us, Ulysses S Grant in 1930, he 1920, he and his mother gave to us the handwritten manuscript that grant wrote himself. As he was writing his memoirs, he started writing them himself. Of course, because he had cancer in his tongue and throat, it became difficult for him to write because he was getting tired. So he would dictate. When it became too much to do that he went back to handwriting. Host when did you look at the actual manuscript . Mr. Chernow when i first started writing the book, i was amazed at how many people said to me, did mark twain ghost write the memoir . Host he was his publisher. Mr. Chernow yes, he was his publisher. I dont think twain was any more capable of imitating grant then grant imitating that style. I didnt have any doubt that grant had written the memoirs because the style was consistent with what he had written his entire life. When i was on q a, i went down to the library of congress and i said to michelle and the other curators, i said i would like to examine the original manuscript. They were a little bit reluctant as it was one of their treasures. They ordinarily tell people to to to look at it on microfilm. I said this is very important. They brought it out and i looked through every page. It was the single most poignant stage of my research. Grant writes in a firm hand writing. As time goes by and with pain of the cancer and the affect of the narcotics he was taking for the pain by the end, his handwriting is beginning to slant and wobble as if he is standing on the deck. You really feel as you go through this that you are living through the final year of his ife. It was all in grants handwriting. Towards the very end, his son fred and his stenographer, grant reached a point where it was ard for him. He was dictating it. It was by Ulysses S Grant. Twain said that his own he was a publisher more than an editor he said that his own involvement was restricted to trivial matters of grammar and punctuation. Anyone who is expecting this is an interjection of mark twain, is going to be disappointed. Host where did he physically write it and with what . Mr. Chernow he wrote with a pen. T was written at their townhouse on east 66 street. He had his son and his stenographer and his military secretary doing the research. They were bringing in an enormous number of maps and battle orders to help refresh his memory because he was writing about events 20 years efore. His library and his townhouse was kind of full of all the documentation. His memory was quite extraordinary. There was a wonderful story about how good grants memory was. Mark twain always revered ulysses s. Grant. A senator from nevada dragged mark twain into grants office as president , it was not the oval office yet. Twain was really nervous about meeting grant and grant was sitting there writing something and he looks up and twain says o him, i am a little embarrassed, are you . Then twain didnt see grant again for about 15 years or so, they ran into each other at an army reunion in chicago. Grant looked at twain and without missing a beat said, i am not embarrassed mr. Twain, are you . There are a lot of stories, 20 years after the civil war of grant running into someone and saying, jones, i remember you from the second day in hiloh. He had a photographic memory for peoples faces and names. Maybe it is one reason why he was a good politician. Host i want to go back to michelle who has been at the library for 17 years. Do you remember when you went there to see the manuscript . Was it early in your esearch . Mr. Chernow it was later in the research. Probably three years ago. Host lets hear her describe some more about what it looks like. It almost looks like legal paper here. Probably in a thought process in writing. Hen you turn the page, you see it is a different piece of paper. Nd a different hand. This is where he said i always regretted the last assault at cold harbor was ever made. Explains in hernow his book, he said he put this in after about the time the army reached the james river will be best. Hes writing it, i know the way mr. Chernow says, its almost an afterthought. Struggling with admitting this was a bad assault or one he regretted. As hes writing along he thinks of this and says put that in later. Host will you write about that in your book . Mr. Chernow grant said this ingle greatest regret of his civil war decision that he ordered the assault on cold harbor where 7000 of the soldiers could have died in maybe a 60minute period. There were kind of instructions to put it in. It was something that grant obviously had wrestled with admitting in print that he should not have ordered hat. All of those years later, he was still haunted by the battle of cold harbor, which would haunt his reputation, even today. It was right outside of richmond. It was the end of the socalled overland campaign. The army is kind of moving south. Right before the siege of richmond and petersburg, it is that final clash where he tries to break through the lines of a brutal frontal assault. Lee had a lot of respect for grant, but that was one move where he was completely perplexed in what grant was doing. It was a catastrophic mistake. Host you tell a story in there about charles guiteau, who assassinated garfiel