I am not sure what got me to read it. Someone said it was the best written presidential memoir. It was amazing. You felt like you knew him and that you’ve been in the room with someone amazing.
I read Chernow's Grant and I'm a quarter the way through Grant's Biography and I intuitively felt the accuracy of this statement but could have never articulated it myself:
“I am a verb,” he had once said. He wasn’t the story. He was the action. No performance, no preamble. Just motion, outcome, history written in the wake. While others postured, Grant advanced. He wasn’t described—he happened."
Yes. You capture the situation well. Talk about tenacity. Kind of sums the man up. I think a lot of the Mexican-American war part of his memoir: he's impressed by the Mexicans' intensity on the first day, but learns that they won't bring the same pep on the second, and even less so the third etc. Just a matter of keeping the pressure up. "Lick em tomorrow."
That was a wonderful read. Thanks for sharing!
I am not sure what got me to read it. Someone said it was the best written presidential memoir. It was amazing. You felt like you knew him and that you’ve been in the room with someone amazing.
Brava. Well done.
Truly my pleasure!
I read Chernow's Grant and I'm a quarter the way through Grant's Biography and I intuitively felt the accuracy of this statement but could have never articulated it myself:
“I am a verb,” he had once said. He wasn’t the story. He was the action. No performance, no preamble. Just motion, outcome, history written in the wake. While others postured, Grant advanced. He wasn’t described—he happened."
Thank you! I spent a little bit of time on it 🙃
Fascinating story, Grant was brave right to the end!
Great piece.
Thanks—channeling two-thirds of Grant at Mount McGregor: broke, dying, and still meeting word count."
Yes. You capture the situation well. Talk about tenacity. Kind of sums the man up. I think a lot of the Mexican-American war part of his memoir: he's impressed by the Mexicans' intensity on the first day, but learns that they won't bring the same pep on the second, and even less so the third etc. Just a matter of keeping the pressure up. "Lick em tomorrow."