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World of Ulysses S. Grant
The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant: Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant
Written in the early twentieth century for her children and grandchildren and first published in 1975, these eloquent memoirs detail the life of General Ulysses S. Grant’s wife. First Lady Julia Dent Grant wrote her reminiscences with the vivacity and charm she exhibited throughout her life, telling her story in the easy flow of an afternoon conversation with a close friend. She writes fondly of White Haven, a plantation in St. Louis County, Missouri, where she had an idyllic girlhood and later met Ulysses.
In addition to relating the joys she experienced, Grant tells about the difficult and sorrowful times. Her anecdotes give fascinating glimpses into the years of the American Civil War. One recounts the night President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Grant insisted she and her husband turn down an invitation to the theater. Her decision saved her husband’s life: like Lincoln, he too had been marked for assassination.
Throughout these memoirs, which she ends with her husband’s death, Grant seeks to introduce her descendants to both her and the man she loved. She also strives to correct misconceptions that were circulated about him. She wanted posterity to share her pride in this man, whom she saw as one of America’s greatest heroes. Her book is a testament to their devoted marriage.
This forty-fifth-anniversary edition includes a new foreword by John F. Marszalek and Frank J. Williams, a new preface by Pamela K. Sanfilippo, the original foreword by Bruce Catton, the original introduction by editor John Y. Simon, recommendations for further reading, and more than twenty photographs of the Grants, their children, and their friends.
In addition to relating the joys she experienced, Grant tells about the difficult and sorrowful times. Her anecdotes give fascinating glimpses into the years of the American Civil War. One recounts the night President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated. Grant insisted she and her husband turn down an invitation to the theater. Her decision saved her husband’s life: like Lincoln, he too had been marked for assassination.
Throughout these memoirs, which she ends with her husband’s death, Grant seeks to introduce her descendants to both her and the man she loved. She also strives to correct misconceptions that were circulated about him. She wanted posterity to share her pride in this man, whom she saw as one of America’s greatest heroes. Her book is a testament to their devoted marriage.
This forty-fifth-anniversary edition includes a new foreword by John F. Marszalek and Frank J. Williams, a new preface by Pamela K. Sanfilippo, the original foreword by Bruce Catton, the original introduction by editor John Y. Simon, recommendations for further reading, and more than twenty photographs of the Grants, their children, and their friends.
346 pages, Paperback
First published April 11, 1988
24 people are currently reading
372 people want to read
About the author
Julia Dent Grant
7 books1 followerJulia Dent Grant was the wife of Civil War General and United States President Ulysses S. Grant, and served as First Lady of the United States from 1869 to 1877. She was the mother of the couple's four children, living through years of financial hardship before the outbreak of the war. During the war years, she joined her husband as often as possible near the scenes action. When he became president in 1869, she took great joy in presiding over the social functions of the White House, calling her time as first lady the happiest years of her life. In 1877, the couple embarked on a two-year world tour, spending time with numerous monarchs, including Queen Victoria. Although the trip was in many ways a journey of triumphs, it left the Grants relatively destitute, and her husband was soon after struck with throat cancer. After his death, Julia D. Grant became the first United States First Lady to write a memoir, although it did not find a publisher until 1975, seventy-three years after her death.
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Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews
May 26, 2021
While the book is not a great work or literature, one would be remiss to judge it on its literary merits. Julia Dent was not a writer but what she did produce is a worthy record of her perception of important events such as growing up in Antebellum Missouri and her view of the Civil War & life with Ulysses S. Grant. The book is written in her authentic voice which adds to its value as it is not a heavily polished and one gets a sense that they know Mrs. Grant, for the better or worse, after reading her memoirs. My only wish was that she didn't conclude her memoirs with the death of her husband and I wish she added a chapter about her years after his passing
March 31, 2014
I read this as a companion piece to Gen Grant's me oirs. It fills in some of the smaller more personal items of the Grants relationship. Julia came from a relatively wealthy St. Louis family. She met Grant through her brother, also a West Point graduate. She describes her family life, courtship, and marriage to Grant. Her story is really interesting when she relates her Civil war experience. She, like Martha Washington, spent. Uh of her time with Grant in the field. She traveled to him sometimes with up to four children. This is quite interesting. Her closeness with her husband shows through as well as his personality and playfulness. In some ways she demonstrates her desire to be more than just his wife and to be part of the decision making. The last part of the book is about her world tour with Grant and while it is interesting and surprising all that they saw in some exotic places, it is much less interesting than the war experiences. A satisfying book because it fleshes out her relationship with Grant.
August 7, 2025
The Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant was a very interesting read. This book is written in a very conversational manner. Mrs. Grant appears to be writing directly to the reader as if you were in her parlor. Her style is is steeped in 19th century mannerisms for women. It gives you a bit of a voyeur view into her life with the President.
While her memoirs span her entire life with Ulysses Grant, it is truncated by brevity either by the author’s choice or her lack of information on a particular topic when speaking about the President. Her affection for him and he for her is evident in her work.
Having read Grant’s memoirs, which are basically on the civil war other than some brief overview in the beginning, she gives a glimpse into his Presidency, their 2 year world tour, and his struggles with terminal cancer. I found her book to be a filler for the President’s by her providing insight and information beyond the civil war.
Make no mistake she is not a world class journalist, but she is someone whom we would all like to know. I recommend this either as a standalone read, or in concert with other books about US Grant.
While her memoirs span her entire life with Ulysses Grant, it is truncated by brevity either by the author’s choice or her lack of information on a particular topic when speaking about the President. Her affection for him and he for her is evident in her work.
Having read Grant’s memoirs, which are basically on the civil war other than some brief overview in the beginning, she gives a glimpse into his Presidency, their 2 year world tour, and his struggles with terminal cancer. I found her book to be a filler for the President’s by her providing insight and information beyond the civil war.
Make no mistake she is not a world class journalist, but she is someone whom we would all like to know. I recommend this either as a standalone read, or in concert with other books about US Grant.
February 14, 2015
I really enjoyed this book! I found it full of interesting history and it really told me a lot about the lives of Ulysses and Julia Grant. I was a little disappointed in a couple areas where I thought since these were Julia's own personal memoirs, that we would learn more about certain major historical events, such as the Grants were supposed to be at Fords Theater the night that Lincoln was shot. I thought that there would more detail and more written about that then there was. But, then I had to tell myself, this was the Grants story, not the Lincolns. This was a terrific book and I really learned a lot about them.
June 14, 2011
Insights into the family life of General Grant. Mrs. Grant was a slave owner who sympathized with the Confederate States and lamented the demise of slavery. She believed that the South had a right to secede from the Union if it wanted to. After the war, she was chummy with Varina Davis, wife of Confederate president Jefferson Davis. Mrs. Grant regarded her general as a hero. She did not have much of a world view, so this book is more biography than history.
December 2, 2009
This is our current "reading while traveling" book. I picked it up at a book sale at the Montrose (Colorado) Library. We finished Julia's story on our last trip to Montrose. The description of the Grants' world tour was especially interesting.
September 24, 2021
This book sat unread for about three years; I’d purchased it as a complement to Ulysses S. Grant’s memoirs and a biography by Ronald White. Grant’s memoirs are famously devoid of almost anything autobiographical or intimate: it’s largely a riveting account of his Civil War campaigns, which he describes in straightforward detail, without flourish. His allusions and references to other officers and politicians at the time are always temperate and measured, and it’s difficult to get a sense of just how withholding/forbearing Grant is, until one reads a comprehensive biography like White’s. While Grant entirely elides in his memoirs his years as a president and his world travels thereafter, White covers them in some detail, enough so that my yen to know more kept Mrs. Grant waiting on the shelf.
After finishing Alan Gurganus’ hefty Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, I thought it fitting that I might finally read a Union widow’s memoirs. What I’d hoped to find in Mrs. Grant’s memoirs was some additional accounts of Grant’s presidential and familial/paternal aspects. Instead, in the spirit in which these memoirs were written—Mrs. Grant adverts to writing/dictating her memoirs as a means to agreeably pass the time, to savor in a conversational manner the pleasant memories of her years with Grant—there is little substantive in her account. Unable to have the manuscript published lucratively, her memoirs remained unpublished during her lifetime, though, shortly before she died, she had several typewritten copies prepared, ostensibly for her grandchildren.
Mrs. Julia Dent Grant’s perspective is simple and personal; there is little of politics or social philosophy, and her greatest passion is directed at those whom she felt had maligned Grant’s reputation (in particular, when they cite instances of drunkenness). Mrs. Grant was born into comfortable circumstances to a slaveholding farmer/merchant in Missouri in 1826. Her decision to marry Grant when he was only a young lieutenant promised some hardship, but her vantage as a well-placed widow enables her to recount the many years of military postings and tight circumstances as colorful prelude to a life replete with advantage and privilege. Mrs. Grant’s account of things is superficial, as her focus was on supporting her husband, her children, and presenting a proper image to the world.
As the darling daughter of a well-heeled frontier gentleman, Julia Dent seems to have expected that the world was to be her oyster, and Grant fulfilled this promise to her, giving her occasion to be a first-class hostess to the nation’s political and social elite, and to have herself honored during their post-presidential international travels. Mrs. Grant’s observations are pedestrian and agreeably complacent, and one imagines that Grant found easy comfort in her devotional fervor.
After finishing Alan Gurganus’ hefty Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, I thought it fitting that I might finally read a Union widow’s memoirs. What I’d hoped to find in Mrs. Grant’s memoirs was some additional accounts of Grant’s presidential and familial/paternal aspects. Instead, in the spirit in which these memoirs were written—Mrs. Grant adverts to writing/dictating her memoirs as a means to agreeably pass the time, to savor in a conversational manner the pleasant memories of her years with Grant—there is little substantive in her account. Unable to have the manuscript published lucratively, her memoirs remained unpublished during her lifetime, though, shortly before she died, she had several typewritten copies prepared, ostensibly for her grandchildren.
Mrs. Julia Dent Grant’s perspective is simple and personal; there is little of politics or social philosophy, and her greatest passion is directed at those whom she felt had maligned Grant’s reputation (in particular, when they cite instances of drunkenness). Mrs. Grant was born into comfortable circumstances to a slaveholding farmer/merchant in Missouri in 1826. Her decision to marry Grant when he was only a young lieutenant promised some hardship, but her vantage as a well-placed widow enables her to recount the many years of military postings and tight circumstances as colorful prelude to a life replete with advantage and privilege. Mrs. Grant’s account of things is superficial, as her focus was on supporting her husband, her children, and presenting a proper image to the world.
As the darling daughter of a well-heeled frontier gentleman, Julia Dent seems to have expected that the world was to be her oyster, and Grant fulfilled this promise to her, giving her occasion to be a first-class hostess to the nation’s political and social elite, and to have herself honored during their post-presidential international travels. Mrs. Grant’s observations are pedestrian and agreeably complacent, and one imagines that Grant found easy comfort in her devotional fervor.
May 8, 2022
“The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant (Mrs Ulysses S. Grant) was written for her immediate family shortly before her death in 1902. The text is based on her diary notes, letter collections, and documents she saved over many years. The book copyright is 1975 by the Ulysses S. Grant Association and first published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons. The memoirs were republished by Southern University Press in 1988 with John Simon edits and detailed notes. This release also has an introduction by Bruce Catton and a John Simon text on “The First Lady as Author.” Simon’s detailed notes are exceptionally well done and very helpful for readers’ understanding of Ulys’ life and the “signs of the times” that impacted Grant’s American Civil War leadership and his presidency. A significant portion of the book recounts the details of a world tour Julia took with Ulys, their son Jesse, and Julia’s maid in 1877-79. Her memoirs contain many surprising revelations about her family, slavery, political intrigues, and family activities during the Civil War. It is an exceptional book. (P)
December 25, 2021
4 stars out of 5 as an exposition of the way things were in the pre and post Civil War era. More appropriate for skimming than reading after Julia Dent marries U.S. Grant and leaves the plantation life in which she grew up. Some interesting insights into their lives together, including the occasional inclusion of Julia's old "servants" in their household even while Grant was a leader in the fight to end slavery. The last half of the book is a detailed description of who they met and what they saw during their 2-and-a-half-year world tour which began in 1877 after the end of his presidency, but that's definitely better to skim than to read in detail.
July 30, 2019
This is a long book but well worth the time. It provides the personal side of General and President U S Grant written by his steadfast and gracious wife. I loved the insights of their marriage, communication and the gracious General. As great in retirement and loved by the world. I am a Southerner and Confederate sympathizer, but I have great respect for Grant’s following the Lincoln’s determination to restore the South and not hang the south’s men in retaliation. He had respect for General Lee as well.
January 14, 2022
I got this book at a National Park store in Vicksburg, MI. I found it well written and most interesting, especially considering her insights into the important battle during the Civil War. Now, I want to read the memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, which the park store employee said were quite well written too. Basically, I found the book a real "page turner" and I have to say that Mrs. Grant has quite a memory. I found it all believable, but cannot imagine myself writing such an account so many years later! Loved the love story too that shone through the pages.
March 25, 2022
The book was interesting in that it showed Julia Grant’s perspective of such a pivotal period of US history. She definitely had her own opinions on things but she wasn’t really very well educated despite her wealthy upbringing & she didn’t appear to be much of a deep thinker. Her role as Grant’s helpmate is however very significant. I was disturbed though that despite her experiences & who her husband was & his role in the Civil War, she still, many years later, looked back on the lives of her own enslaved persons with such rose colored glasses. They were happy & well cared for, etc.
August 20, 2018
Disappointed.
Disappointed...i expected more original source materials relevant to the times...she loved her husband and was a constant source of support and succor...he was also her personal gravey train...somewhat of a ninney...She obviously didn t care much forGalena...can t believe she wanted the poor guy to run again...had no idea how I'll he was...i m still glad I read it...gave m e n we
Disappointed...i expected more original source materials relevant to the times...she loved her husband and was a constant source of support and succor...he was also her personal gravey train...somewhat of a ninney...She obviously didn t care much forGalena...can t believe she wanted the poor guy to run again...had no idea how I'll he was...i m still glad I read it...gave m e n we
April 7, 2021
While not a book for everyone, it gives an interesting perspective on Grant that one won't find anywhere else. She glosses over his failings of course and nary a word about his drinking, but that is to be expected. She also did not like her in-laws very much. She does go in to some detail on her presentiments--both her and Ulysses very much believed in the paranormal, a fact usually left out of his biographies.
September 23, 2025
Mrs. Grant’s memories transports you to her idyllic Antebellum childhood, early married life and mother, the Civil War, Ulysses presidency, and their golden years. When reading this I felt as if Mrs. Grant was speaking directly to me in her sitting room while enjoying Luncheon. What a remarkable woman who was not a great champion of politics or women’s rights but a woman of love for her family and husband. 5.0 Bookworms
June 15, 2017
Torn on this book. It's great to hear from a First Lady directly as I continue to read biographies. There is a very conversational tone to it, which works well. At times it seemed more of a journal, especially during their world tour. There was no cohesion and it became redundant. The focus at times seemed to be more on President Grant than Julia, which was clearly her purpose.
February 4, 2020
It was very good for the purpose of learning life from Julia Dent Grant's perspective but I was expecting more information so, for that reason, I gave it 3 stars. Perhaps she didn't write more about the war because she was not aware, as we are about everything today. Her perspective regarding her family's slaves and later servants, and the contrast between modern day women was also interesting.
January 11, 2022
Is this a real five-star book? Perhaps not. I wish Julia had written much more about the last year or so of her husband’s life. I wish she had written about the years afterwards.
But this is her story, and I think it was charming!
But this is her story, and I think it was charming!
August 28, 2025
A wonderful companion to Grant’s memoirs.
November 8, 2025
I was inspired to read this after touring the Grant's home in Galena, Illinois.
December 29, 2025
This is a very intimate look at the life, career, and death of US Grant. I've read the Chernow biography, but feel like I know Grant a little better having read this memoir by his widow.
partially-read
October 20, 2015I've only gotten a third of the way through, and I don't think I'll make it any further; I seem to be allergic to the library copy I'm reading. In any case:
I wanted to read this because I'd heard what a great marriage Ulys and Julia had, and I desperately wanted to read about a happy marriage after delving into the unhappy relationships in Hamilton. Also, she was the first First Lady to write her memoirs, which is something I wished to support in principle. These two do, certainly, seem to have been very happy, though I'm having a difficult time getting at the actual people behind this apparently endless stream of rose-tinged reminisces.
Also, I find Julia's defense of her family's slave-owning ways disturbing. She wrote these memoirs decades after the Civil War ended, yet she obstinately maintains that her family's slaves were happy and well-treated, and that they were perfectly content with their positions. She repeatedly relates anecdotes about how her enslaved companions would tell her how wonderful and beautiful she was, as though they could have said anything but what the person who freaking owned them would want to hear.
This seems part and parcel with the rest of the book, though. She became very upset when newspapers printed unfavorable articles on her husband, but I can't tell if they were actually without merit, or if she just took offence to any negative betrayal of Ulysses, no matter how deserved it might have been! She also accounts--in great detail--the places she traveled, the houses she stayed in, and the people she met, but completely failed to place these events in a larger historical context. We can practically track the movements of Grant's troops by the week, yet she never mentions when the Civil War broke out. These memoirs are, to my mind, bizarrely solipsistic.
I wanted to read this because I'd heard what a great marriage Ulys and Julia had, and I desperately wanted to read about a happy marriage after delving into the unhappy relationships in Hamilton. Also, she was the first First Lady to write her memoirs, which is something I wished to support in principle. These two do, certainly, seem to have been very happy, though I'm having a difficult time getting at the actual people behind this apparently endless stream of rose-tinged reminisces.
Also, I find Julia's defense of her family's slave-owning ways disturbing. She wrote these memoirs decades after the Civil War ended, yet she obstinately maintains that her family's slaves were happy and well-treated, and that they were perfectly content with their positions. She repeatedly relates anecdotes about how her enslaved companions would tell her how wonderful and beautiful she was, as though they could have said anything but what the person who freaking owned them would want to hear.
This seems part and parcel with the rest of the book, though. She became very upset when newspapers printed unfavorable articles on her husband, but I can't tell if they were actually without merit, or if she just took offence to any negative betrayal of Ulysses, no matter how deserved it might have been! She also accounts--in great detail--the places she traveled, the houses she stayed in, and the people she met, but completely failed to place these events in a larger historical context. We can practically track the movements of Grant's troops by the week, yet she never mentions when the Civil War broke out. These memoirs are, to my mind, bizarrely solipsistic.
February 10, 2014
I was very surprised that I enjoyed this book as much as I did. Being a "history geek" I find all the details normally not available or nuggets of unknown facts fascinating - so fair warning!
Mrs. Grant's style if conversational, not overly detailed. The ongoing list of receptions, dinners and other official functions she and her husband attend is rather tiresome as the end nears, nor does she provide a lot of details of significant events, but her obvious love, respect and awe of her husband is evident. What the book does offer is a glimpse of how people actually interacted and spoke to one another, some insight of Gen. Grant as a human being and snapshot of life as the wife of a soldier. The introduction by Bruce Catton, Civil War author and expert, and forward by John Y. Simon help to decipher the mind set of the author and give interesting and needed background information.
Mrs. Grant's style if conversational, not overly detailed. The ongoing list of receptions, dinners and other official functions she and her husband attend is rather tiresome as the end nears, nor does she provide a lot of details of significant events, but her obvious love, respect and awe of her husband is evident. What the book does offer is a glimpse of how people actually interacted and spoke to one another, some insight of Gen. Grant as a human being and snapshot of life as the wife of a soldier. The introduction by Bruce Catton, Civil War author and expert, and forward by John Y. Simon help to decipher the mind set of the author and give interesting and needed background information.
Read
May 16, 2009This book might appeal more to women than men, since it relates her life and General Grant's from a female perspective. She refused to publish the book during her lifetime because she felt the financial terms offered by prospective publishers were not attractive. She knew that her husband received a hefty sum of money for his autobiography; so she was holding out for more money. Her family decided to have it published in 1975.
December 6, 2018
A good book about mrs Grant and her family, it gets a little boring when she talks about her world tour with u s Grant but ends with him during at mount McGregor. It also has a lot of funny little things she did in her life and teases her husband and her family. A very good read
August 4, 2011
Extremely interesting book
May 2, 2016
Wanted to read this book after reading a historical novel about Mrs. Grant but just couldn't quite finish this.
October 20, 2019
Julia Dent Grant is quite a character. Parts of her story had me rolling my eyes, other parts laughing at loud.
Displaying 1 - 28 of 28 reviews