That way in your book . Mr. Chernow when i started working on the book i read it to i ran into a friend who said to me, how can you write a great biography of someone who wrote a great autobiography . That stopped me in my tracks and 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. It is not really a biography. It is not really an autobiography. It covers the mexican war and the civil war. I ended up zeroing in on those things that grant did not want to talk about, particularly his lifelong struggle with alcoholism and his repeated his repeated business failures. Host i want to start out concentrating on the end of his life. I believe it was 1883 he was a twoterm president and he slipped on the ice. You also tell that story. What is it . Mr. Chernow a cascading story cascading series of crises that happened to him. He was about 61 years old. He and his wife julia were living in manhattan in a town house on east 60 six st on east avenue. He comes home and it was christmas eve. He turns on the icy pavement to give the driver a christmas tip and he trips and either tore a muscle in his thigh, he may have dislocated his hip, but he is never quite the same again. For weeks or maybe months afterwards he is hobbling around on crutches. One terrible thing after another happens to him. Host what was grant and ward . Mr. Chernow he entered into a partnership with a young man named Ferdinand Ward. He was only 29 years old but he was already a legendary character on wall street. He was the Young Napoleon of finance. He had already entered into a Business Partnership with grants with grants youngest son buck. Grant, throughout his life was in incurably naive person, particularly when it came to business dealings. It seemed like every confidence man in the universe had xray vision when it came to identifying u. S. Grant. The name on the shingle is grant and ward, but the person who is not only doing all of the business transactions, but who alone has the power to sign checks and has access to the vaults is Ferdinand Ward. A lot of people invest in grant and ward because that is the name of the great unit in Union General and former president. Sadly, grant was so trusting and so enamored of young ward that grant invested his life savings in the company. His three sons invested their life savings. Numerous cousins, sisters and friends of confederate veterans invested their life savings. Grant went to work every day. He went to wall street and reported their regularly and regularly. There this firm seems to be the most successful on wall street. He should have been more skeptical because Ferdinand Ward was promising people rewards of 15 20 per month, not per year, so this was clearly a warning flag. It turned out to be a massive ponzi scheme. Turned out to be day. Ernie made ofoff of his oneoke up morning morning to discover that all of the profits were fictitious and that he was worth exactly 80. Host you say that he went to vanderbilt for money . Mr. Chernow for happen right Ferdinand Ward came to him before the firm went bust and borrow 150,000. He said the money was to bailout the Marine National bank, which was the main bank of the firm. In fact, it was to bail out grant and ward. Grant grabs his crutches and goes off to see vanderbilt who does give him a check. Grant assures him that he will be repaid within 28 or 48 hours. Only to find out that the firm went bust. Grant was so innocent that he later said that, even on the night before grant and ward went bust and this whole sham was expose, had no inkling that there was anything wrong. He said he had such implicit faith in Ferdinand Ward that it took him a day to believe in the reality of what had happened. He kept imagining, as did his son, that ferdinand would materialize and explain the whole thing. This was an interesting site of a man who, during the civil war, could be shrewd in sizing up his fellow generals and the opposing generals. It is something of a mystery of 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, two recent. 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 in destitute. It was at that point that he decided to write his memoirs. I dont think he initially realized the commercial potential of what that was. The first publisher he spoke to from the century magazine who proposed writing his memoirs said, you think anyone would be interested . 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. This was probably the greatest of the 19th century. The only one that mightve rivaled in totaled sales what a 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 jersey. In june 1884, they were sitting out on the pr is a test they were sitting out on the porch and he bit into a peach and he said it stung me. She thought maybe there was an insect or something that kind in it and literally stung him. It was the first that he relies to had the cancer. He tried to, at that moment, rent 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 jersey. His next door neighbor had a doctor visiting and he examined him and told grant that he said consult his physician at home. 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 stoicism . Because grant was able to indoor and a norm us 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 do not go away. It was understandable. Cough that goes on for several months we would all be curious of whats going on, particularly if there are accompanied by very painful swallowing. It just got worse and worse. Host how many cigars did he smoked a day . Mr. Chernow during the civil war, probably his first great victory. He surrounded fort donaldson and the surround her confederate armies surrounded 14,000 troops. In 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 and 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, that he had oral cravings throughout his life. 10,000 cigars you smoke, so 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 lung 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. The used cocaine because it was numb the area. It 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 drink anything he would be in agony. As soon as he was in agony, he would have to start taking morphine and other opiates. That would cloud his brain. What he got into the habit of doing, with great current and fortitude, he would go with four or five hours without eating or drinking anything. That was to avoid the pain and not having to take any pain killers 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 of flow no man can improve upon it. It was a memoir that deserved to stand alongside caesars commentary. Many commentators and readers since 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 new york. What did he do any 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 leaders 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 was a very good writer. He wrote every speech he wrote as president. He prided himself on his writing. A kind of became 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 heat 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. It is beautiful, the descriptions are extremely clear and accurate. It is very moving. It is a very becoming modesty about it and profound. He was a mean that grant wrote that grants amazed 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, cannot write 5000 words. Grant is just an amazing person. 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 imagine that i would get any high grade and he ends up a general of the army. He never imagined he would going to 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. 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 in the Manuscript Division at the library of congress. We grabbed a camera and went over 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. 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. 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 life. It was all in grants handwriting. Towards the very end, his son fred and his stenographer, grant reached a point where it was hard for him. 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. Host where did he physically write it and with what . Mr. Chernow he wrote with a pen. It was written after town house on east 66 street. And hisis son 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 before. 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 sits up and twain says to him, i am a little embarrassed by you. I think for about 15 years or so, they ran into each other at a 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 shiloh. 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 research . 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. When you turn the page, you see it is a different piece of paper. By having it on a different paper, you can also see that he has made notes to his , he is writing it. It is almost an afterthought. He is struggling with admitting that this is a very bad assaults, or one he regretted. As he is writing a long heat thinks of this and says put that in later. Host will you write about that in your book . Mr. Chernow grant said this single greatest regret of his civil war decision was 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 that he should not have ordered that. All of those years later, he was so haunted by the battle of cold harbor, which would haunt his reputation, even today. It was right outside of 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 garfield. There is a lot about the convention. What is the story about him trying to go after grant at some point . Mr. Chernow in the book, i reveal that grant was stuck by alked by him before he killed garfield and John Wilkes Booth before he killed lincoln. He was constantly approaching grant. He was always described as this disgruntled office seeker. He was mentally disturbed. He continued to confront grant. And grant was warned about him. That this was someone who was disturbed and should have nothing to do with him. He actually came up to grants hotel room. Host was the president at the time . Mr. Chernow this was after. This was not long before garfield. He uses false pretenses to force his way in. Grant says, what are you doing here, i told you to leave me alone. He says, i want nothing from you but your signature, recommendation, or something. Grant recognized that he was a disturbed individual and did not realize just quite how disturbed until