The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1885-06-17
General Grant AS an Author.

NeW OrE ioUn OF the manner IN winch
General Grants book has been written
we make the following extracts. The
extracts from the book which have APP
peared in the papers were taken with
out authority from a canvasser's sam
ple-book. The San says: "The book
is finished, and when he revises few
more patches of proof the invalid's
task will have been finished. 1t will
consist of two volumes, and each vol
ume will contain about six hundred
pages. Originally it was supposed that
five hundred pages would be the limit
in each volume, but General Grant has
amplified so many passages and length
ened so many chapters that two hun
dred pages have been added. General
Grants friends imagine that it is this
work that has kept him alive, and they
fear the consequences of the reaction
that will come when the last proof has
been revised and the Generals mind
is freed from the stimulus gained from
anxiety to complete this undertaking"
The sensational story to the effect that
General Badeau had allowed the i'm
preston to exist that he, in great part,
had written the book from rough notes
furnished by the general, and that he
had therefor been expelled from
the Grant mansion, is declared to be
without foundation. Nobody has writ
ten any part of the book except Gen
eral Grant and the stenographer to
whom he has dictated. General Badeau
has not been expelled from the Grant
mansion, and the old soldier is not
angry with his former secretary. When
Mrs. Sartoris and her husband arrived
from England and the house was filled
with doctors and others, in hourly ex-
pectatiOn of General Grants death,
Badeau took up his abode elsewhere.
He denied the truth of the author
ship rumor to all who spoke to him
about it. OF the details of the work,
the Sun says: General Grant began
work on his book about a year ago,
after the Grant & Ward failure. He
wrote the first volume with his own hand
and completed it late in the winter.
He at once began to prepare the second
volume, and had written about one
third of it when his illness became so
severe that death was momentarily ex-
pected. When he had recovered suf-
ficiently to again interest himself in
his work, he asked his publishers to
supply him with stenographer, and
then he began to devote an hour, and
sometimes nearly two hours, every
morning to debating his memoirs. The
stenographer always found him in his
bedroom-the second-story apartment,
over the front parlor, whose front wall
is bent outward into great bow-win-
devastated at little table, with few
notes pencilled on brown MANILA paper.
Sometimes he did not look at these
notes at all, but talked as he might
have done to a friend. His dictation
was very rapid indeed, and he seldom
hesitated for word of mode of express
sion. The stenographer copied his
shorthand notes on large white sheets
with typewriter, and these were SUBJ
sequently submitted to the general
who ran his eye over them, changing a
word here and there, and now and
then celebrating some paragraph or
adding wholly new matter. This was
copied once again, and sent to the pub
fishers. General Grant wrote his first
volume and third of the second volume
on legal cap with pen and ink, but the
copy went to the compositors either in
Colonel Fred Grants handwriting or in
typewriter copy 1t is singular
fact that the compositors, who have
now nearly completed the type-setting
of the entire two volumes, have never
seen General Grants handwriting.
Had the generals sheets been sent
away from the house it is doubtful
whether they would have ever got back
there again. Their value as curiosities
and keepsakes would have been toe
tempting to all who could get access to
J them. Colonel Fred Grant or the pub.
: lisher's stenographer have copied each
! page and left the manuscript in the
generals home. The stenographel
who has attended the general during
} the past few weeks is Mr.. Dawson OF
| Washington, a well-known congress
: sonal reporter. He sits in the big
= hall bedroom, next to the apartment
which is at once the generals bed
| room and workshop. There is a door
l way between the generals room anC
l the hall bedroom, but bookcase blocks
5 it up, and when the general goes into
9 the hall bedroom he has to reach it by
r going into the hall and then through
4 another door. This hall bedroom con
: tains the collection of books of refer
: ence used by the general in refreshing
s his memory and securing dates ant
S figures for his work. 1t has been sale
q that his nrincinal hooks of referanc,