Owen Wister's "Beacon Biographies: Ulysses S. Grant"

Date Published: January 31, 2026

In the late 19th and early 20th Centuries, the aim of The Beacon Biographies’ Series was to furnish brief and readable, yet authoritative accounts of the lives of Americans who had impressed their personalities most deeply on the history of their country or on the character of their countrymen. They were positioned as “monographs.” These were works in which only the salient traits of an individual were brought out … almost in an outline form. The author was asked to capture his subject’s most identifying character traits much like an artist might produce a “sketch” of a person’s exterior traits—with emphasis placed on the most identifying characteristics.

The publishers of this series believed that many of their fellow country-men and -women—though they had the inclination to read more about these individuals, did not have the time to acquaint themselves with American biography because of the length of such works—often running across multiple lengthy volumes. In The Beacon Biographies’ Series everything that these individuals would ordinarily care to know was succinctly given by writers of competence: writers who possessed the best modern-day point of view.
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Each individual’s volume—such as this Beacon Biographies' work on “Ulysses S. Grant” by Owen Wister, begins with a portrait frontispiece and a chronological outline of the events of the individual’s life. It concludes with a final bibliography that evaluates other works for further reading material—if the reader desires further, deeper insights.

Peter E. Greulich, January 2026

A Review of The Beacon Biographies’ “Ulysses S. Grant” by Owen Wister

• Reviews of the Day: 1901
• Selected Insights from “Ulysses S. Grant” by Owen Wister
• This Author’s Thoughts on “Ulysses S. Grant” by Owen Wister

Reviews of the Day: 1901

• In the Character of other “Beacon Biographies,” This Book Is Brief but Well Written

On January 5, 1901, The Detroit Free Press published a review of Owen Wister’s book: “Ulysses S. Grant.” In the column entitled “In the Literary World,” the paper’s editors wrote—in part, the following:

“The latest of those admirable little monographs, the Beacon Biographies, concerns “Ulysses S. Grant,” and is prepared by Owen Wister. Mr. Wister gives all but one short final chapter to Grant’s career—he covers Grant’s time as a soldier and patriot, and his services in the army. As for the later years of his life they are dismissed too cavalierly.

“We are told Grant rose to his full height again only when he came to die, and that ‘men far less worthy have sat more worthily in the White House.’ ”
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“The necessity for brevity has caused Mr. Wister to state facts very boldly and without extenuating and explanatory details.”

​“In the Literary World,” The Detroit Free Press, January 5, 1901

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• The Beacon Biographies’ “Ulysses S. Grant” Provides Much in a Compact Form

On January 12, 1901, The Buffalo Review, published a review of Owen Wister’s book: “Ulysses S. Grant.” Under the heading “Beacon Biographies” in a column entitled “Books and Authors,” the paper highlighted—in part,  the following about this work:

“The author, Owen Wister, has boiled down his facts to a small number of pages to conform to the purpose of the [Beacon Biographies] series, the gleaning has been made from the best [Ulysses S. Grant] biographies published to date.
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“It is astonishing to find so much available material [on General Grant] in so compact a form.”

​“Beacon Biographies,” The Buffalo Review, January 12, 1901

• ​Owen Wister’s “Ulysses S. Grant” Is a Timely, Salient Study​

On January 13, 1901, The Atlanta Constitution, in the section entitled “Books, Magazines and Authors” produced by Lucian L. Knight, carried a review of Owen Wister’s short biography entitled “Ulysses S. Grant.” In this review the author commented--in part, the following:

“What specially commends ‘The Beacon Biographies’ to popularity is that they are just as brief as they can possibly be made—consistent and comprehensiveness, and are specially adapted to meet the wants of busy people.
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“This excellent life of General Grant is in keeping with the character of the series not only as regards brevity but also in the manner of style and thought, and we cordially commend it to readers who wish to acquaint themselves with the salient facts of the career of the distinguished American soldier and citizen.”

​“Books Reviewed,” The Atlanta Constitution, January 13, 1901

Selected Insights from “Ulysses S. Grant” by Owen Wister

• ​Owen Wister Summarizes the Life of Ulysses S. Grant as Human Being, General and President

“At the age of thirty-nine, Grant was an obscure failure in a provincial town.

​"To him and his family, for whom he could not earn needful bread, his father had become a last shelter against the struggle for life.  ... Not all the neighbors knew his face.

“At the age of forty-three, his picture hung in the homes of grateful millions. His name was joined with Washington’s. Yet, a little while, and we see him step down, amid discordant reproach from the Presidency, having helplessly presided over scandal and villainy blacker than the country had thus far witnessed.

“Next, his private integrity is darkly overcast and a stroke kills him. But death clears his sky. At the age of sixty-three, Grant died; and the people paused to mourn and honor him devotedly.

“All the neighbors know his face today.
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“None of our public men has a story so strange as this.”

A high-quality, color frontispiece from "The Beacon Biographies of Eminent Americans."

• Owen Wister Believed that the Civil War Was Grant’s “Calling”

“It would be strangely inconsistent to find in Grant’s adolescence any signs of precocity, such as mark, for example, the early years of Daniel Webster, another rustic boy with very similar antecedents. … Intellect was Webster’s gift, while character was Grant’s; and character finds no outward expression other than in life’s chances. Napoleon owes his fame to himself, but Wellington owes his fame to Napoleon [Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo].
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“Save for the Civil War, Grant’s force would have slumbered in him from the cradle to the grave.”

• ​Wister Writes of General Grant’s Meeting With Robert E. Lee to End the Civil War

“What Grant’s features--an unrelaxed countenance, concealed on that day as he left his meeting with General Robert E. Lee we now know from him.

"Grant wrote the following:

“ ‘What General Lee’s feelings were at this time I do not know. But my own, which had been quite jubilant on the receipt of his letter, were sad and depressed. I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse.’

“But, inside the house, what had gone on between the two chiefs? … A witness watched and moved always with the hush of a sick-room.

“After the first greeting, when they sat down, it became Grant who shrank from the point. He talked to Lee about [the war in] Mexico and old times, and how good peace was going to be now; and twice, Lee had to remind him of the business they had to do.
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“Then Grant wrote, as always, simple and clear words. In the middle, his eye fell upon Lee’s beautiful sword; and the chivalric act which it prompted, has knighted his own spirit forever.

“He instantly wrote: ‘The surrender would not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their private horses or baggage.’ When Lee’s eyes reached that sentence, his face changed for the first time; and he said, ‘This will have a very happy effect upon my army.’

“He then told Grant—something that was new to him, that the horses ridden by Lee’s men were their own. Again the conqueror’s tenderness lifted him into a realm diviner than the renown of victory. He ordered that the men ‘take the animals home with them to work their little farms.’

Each volume in "The Beacon Biographies" came with a recommended reading bibliography. Owen Wister marked the best of the best with a star "*" as shown above.

“To this nobility Lee responded. ‘This will have the best possible effect upon the men he said. Moved to even greater frankness, he told Grant of his army’s hunger; and for this also Grant at once provided. These are the things which Ulysses S. Grant—the conqueror, had done when he came out of the house with unrelaxed countenance and rode away. As he went, Grant heard firing from his lines. It was in honor of the news, already spreading: The war was over!

“He stopped these salutes at once saying:
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“ ‘Yes, the war is over … and the rebels are our countrymen again.’ ”

This Author’s Thoughts on “Ulysses S. Grant” by Owen Wister

​One reviewer in 1901 wrote the following:

“In this Beacon Biographies’ work on Ulysses S. Grant, we find the dramatic contrasts of Grant’s career emphasized. … Mr. Wister writes with the frankness of the historian, yet with none of the bias of the partisan.

“Ulysses S. Grant’s fame is secure enough to permit the full light of investigation as to his weaknesses, and Owen Wister does not make the mistake of supposing these weaknesses are the more interesting things in a great man’s career.”
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“Mr. Wister has acquitted himself of his task very satisfactorily in this little volume.

I found myself in complete agreement with this review. I have never really found that a great individual's weaknesses are the more interesting part of a biography. While growing up I had read of the contrasts that composed the life of one of the great generals that this country produced during the Civil War: Ulysses S. Grant.

What I remembered the most was the contrasting historical impressions of the man, that even as one of our former Presidents of the United States, he died almost complete broke—his life’s savings stolen by individuals he trusted. This in itself left its impression on me, and this short 145 page biography by Owen Wister seemed to walk that balance between understanding the failures and the success in one individual’s life.

A black-and-white portrait of Owen Wister the author of this biography of Ulysses S. Grant.

Owen Wister tried to get at Grant’s overall nature and character. The biographer convinced me that Ulysses S. Grant was a good man, but was never meant to live the life of a politician during a time when so many were trying to exploit government for personal gain. [Read here about the Tammany organization in New York City, which is not part of this story but documents one of the evil times we went through as a country.] As a United States’ President, Ulysses S. Grant proved just too distant and too disengaged to run the country properly for his time in office. He should have listened to one of his closest friends who told him he lacked some of the basic characteristics necessary to walk safely in the world of politicians.

This work on Ulysses S. Grant within The Beacon Biographies’ Series accomplished its task. It inspired me to consider reading more about General Ulysses S. Grant, and I am currently reading the first volume of “The Memoirs of U. S. Grant” by Ulysses S. Grant.

I truly appreciated this one singular thought from Wister’s book: “The more we remember Grant’s greatness at Appomattox--a hero in a soldier’s dress with sword not drawn but sheathed, his figure stands immortal … and there his real life ends.”

Grant had his moment, for which we should remember him. … We should also learn from his faults.

I think Owen Wister would have agree with both of these statements.

Cheers,
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- Peter E. Greulich

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