April 2018 CWRT Meeting: John F. Marszalek: The History of the Memoir

John F. Marszalek: The Nevins-Freeman Award Address: The History of the Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant Named after famed historians Allen Nevins and Douglas Southall Freeman, the Nevins-Freeman Award is the highest honor the Civil War Round Table of Chicago can bestow. It is awarded for an individual’s contributions to Civil War scholarship, and their dedication to the Round Table movement. Past award winners include Bruce Catton, James M McPherson and Wiley Sword. This year we are proud to give this award to a distinguished author and historian, John Marszalek. John F. Marszalek retired in 2002 as a Giles Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Mississippi State University. He taught courses in the Civil War, Jacksonian America, and Race Relations. He is the author or editor of thirteen books and over two hundred fifty articles and book reviews. Sherman, A Soldier's Passion for Order was a finalist for the Lincoln Prize, and his first book Court Martial, A Black Man in America was made into a Showtime motion picture. He continues to lecture widely throughout the nation and has appeared on the major television networks. He serves on the board of advisors of the Lincoln Forum, the Lincoln Prize, the National Lincoln Bicentennial Commission, and the Monitor Museum (Newport News, Virginia). After John Y. Simon's death in July 2008, Marsazalek was asked to serve as the Executive Director and Managing Editor of the Ulysses S. Grant Association and The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant project. These papers are now located at Mississippi State University. On April 13th Professor Marszalek will talk about how Grant's memoirs came to be written, and its history up to and including the Belknap Press of Harvard University Press publication of (eds) John F. Marszalek with David S. Nolen and Louis P. Gallo: The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, the Complete Annotated Edition. The edition was published in October 2017.