Recognition

To the Editors:

In C. Vann Woodward’s review of the Library of America’s edition of The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant [NYR, November 8, 1990], he commented on the amount of recognition given to editors William S. and Mary Drake McFeely (the former one of Woodward’s students). “Such services,” Woodward wrote, “are usually granted more generous acknowledgment than is accorded the editors in this instance.” Perhaps Mr. Woodward could have been as generous as the McFeelys were in acknowledging that the bulk of the Grant correspondence reprinted in the volume was drawn directly from The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, edited by John Y. Simon and his associates. Their hard work in collecting and editing these letters was totally overlooked by Mr. Woodward.

Brooks D. Simpson
Department of History
Arizona State University
Tempe, Arizona