Matias Romero and the Editing Process

Years ago, when I first read Grant's Memoirs, I was jolted into full attention by an early passage about the Mexican War, in which he fought as a junior officer. I hadn't realized Grant's true feelings about that war, at least at the end of his life when he was writing the book: He strongly opposed it, thought the United States was wrong to invade Mexico, and that this unjust war helped set the stage for the US Civil War. Yet Grant obviously thought his duty lay in serving in Mexico, which he did with great courage and success.

Cynics will sometimes say Mark Twain was the real author of Grant's Memoirs, which is nonsense. Twain was the editor, and helped organize the manuscript, but a considerable part of his job was to give Grant confidence and get out of his way. He did not, for example, tone down what Grant wrote about the Mexican War, despite its potential to offend conventional readers who might believe in the notion of "my country right or wrong". (Twain's only regret was that the book did not address Grant's drinking.)

Matias Romero was a Mexican diplomat who first met Grant in Virginia in 1864. They later became friends, and in Grant's post-presidential years worked together on a plan to build railroads in Mexico. Romero provided badly needed financial aid when Grant went broke in 1884.

Romero is a recurring character in The Last Circle of Ulysses Grant (so is Twain, or Samuel Clemens). That book's editor at Square Circle Press was Richard Vang. He did a good job, e.g. breaking the novel into two parts and coming up with titles for them, an idea I at first brushed aside before reconsidering. He also raised an objection to a joke at the beginning of Chapter 20, the last chapter. It was a wisecrack shared by Ely Parker with Frank Herron, involving a planned luncheon for the two of them plus Romero and Nellie Grant Sartoris. I don't think I was wrong to keep the joke in.