author

Walter Allen

1840–1907

A Civil War veteran turned journalist and biographer, he wrote brisk, accessible books about American public life and some of its most debated figures. His work ranges from a study of Reconstruction-era South Carolina to a compact life of Ulysses S. Grant.

1 Audiobook

Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant

by Walter Allen

About the author

Born in 1840 and deceased in 1907, Walter Allen was an American writer, journalist, and former U.S. Navy paymaster during the Civil War. Surviving library and archival records tie him both to military service and to a later career in letters.

Allen is known for nonfiction shaped by politics and history. His 1888 book Governor Chamberlain's Administration in South Carolina examined Reconstruction in the South, while his later Ulysses S. Grant presented the life of the Union general and president for a broad readership.

He seems best remembered today through those historical works and the period they reflect: a generation that had lived through the Civil War and then tried to explain its leaders, conflicts, and aftermath in print.