Fantastic first edition two volume set of the Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant. These volumes fearture brown Moroccan leather over brown cloth boards with gilt details and circular emblems on both front and back covers along with beautiful marbling on the edges and inner cover pages. This set is complete with the facsimile letter of Grant's original terms for Lee's surrender that is often missing as well as the maps in the second volume. Mark Twain was the publisher of this monumental memoir as well as its editor and proof reader. Twain was extremely fond of and a close friend of Grant and encouraged the President and war hero to write his memoirs. Grant was dying of throat cancer but completed his two volume opus, dictating the second volume to a secretary. Twain noted in a letter to his daughter that the manuscript was not even set yet and 20,000 sets had been ordered from only two states. "Wait till you hear from the other 37." Grant finished his memoirs on July 18, 1885 and died five days later on July 23rd. Following his death, advance orders of the memoirs reached 300,000 sets realizing close to $450,000 for his family which was otherwise penniless. In a 1992 New York Times book review, General Schwarzkopf is quoted as using Grant's two-volume work as his model, calling it the finest military history of the Civil War. Each book measures about 9.5" long, 6.5 wide, and 2" thick. The total lot weight is 5 lbs 13.2 oz.

Fair. Wear to both spines, foxing, and discoloration on front cover of volume 1. Title page loose in volume 1.