Two Titans

Eighteen eighty-five was a good year for American publishing. The Century magazine printed an article on grizzlybear hunting by Theodore Roosevelt, excerpts from three new novels (William Dean Howells’s The Rise of Silas Lapham, Henry James’s The Bostonians, and Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), and a portion of a work of non-fiction (Ulysses Grant’s Personal Memoirs). Twain’s and Grant’s works are acknowledged masterpieces, and the stories behind their creation are famous in literary history; the writing of Grant’s Personal Memoirs belongs to the annals of

heroism as well. Mark Perry’s Grant and Twain recounts the twists and turns, and conveys much of the pathos, despite serious limitations.

About the Author

Richard Brookhiser

Historian Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute.

Eighteen eighty-five was a good year for American publishing. The Century magazine printed an article on grizzlybear hunting by Theodore Roosevelt, excerpts from three new novels (William Dean Howells’s The Rise of Silas Lapham, Henry James’s The Bostonians, and Mark Twain’s The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn), and a portion of a work of non-fiction (Ulysses Grant’s Personal Memoirs). Twain’s and Grant’s works are acknowledged masterpieces, and the stories behind their creation are famous in literary history; the writing of Grant’s Personal Memoirs belongs to the annals of

heroism as well. Mark Perry’s Grant and Twain recounts the twists and turns, and conveys much of the pathos, despite serious limitations.