Top 10 Political Memoirs

Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant — 1885

Completed just five days before succumbing to throat cancer, the former general's memoirs were the first by a President to achieve widespread commercial success, helped in no small part by public interest in his race against the clock to get them finished before his death. Published by Mark Twain, the writing shows few signs of having been done in haste; Grant gives thoughtful treatment to the Civil War and a thorough retelling of such pivotal events as receiving Confederate general Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox. He also understood that people want to read the exciting stuff: Grant devotes the majority of his account to his time as a general, spending little time dwelling on his term as president.

See a TIME multimedia piece on the generals of the Civil War.