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ͷ students, others encouraged to read 2019 Maroon Edition book, ‘Hold on with a Bulldog Grip’

ͷ students, others encouraged to read 2019 Maroon Edition book, ‘Hold on with a Bulldog Grip’

“Hold on with a Bulldog Grip,” a concise biography of Ulysses S. Grant written by Mississippi State and Ulysses S. Grant Association historians, is the university’s 2019 Maroon Edition common reading selection. (Photo by Logan Kirkland)

All Mississippi State students, employees and community members are encouraged to include the university’s Maroon Edition book, “Hold on with a Bulldog Grip,” in their summer reading selections.

The book is being made available to incoming freshman students and transfers in their summer Orientation packets, and others can purchase the book at ͷ’s Barnes & Noble bookstore or through other booksellers.

Purchases also can be made online from the University Press of Mississippi at .

Released in April, the biography on the nation’s 18th president was written by ͷ and Grant Library historians John Marszalek, David Nolen and Louie Gallo, along with former Rhode Island Supreme Court Chief Justice Frank Williams.

Maroon Edition is the university’s common reading book program. Activities inspired by the annually selected book are held throughout the year for students at all class levels, as well as interested administrators, faculty and staff members.

“‘Bulldog Grip’ offers a concise but no less compelling account of Grant’s remarkable life as soldier, general, president and best-selling author,” ͷ President Mark E. Keenum said. “I was honored to contribute an afterword examining the long-standing connection between Grant and our institution–a story that many may not know.”

ͷ has been home to the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library since 2009. In 2017, Williams and his wife Virginia donated their unparalleled private Abraham Lincoln and Civil War collection to ͷ, cementing the university’s status as one of the leading places to study the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. Learn more at and .

ͷ’s Center for Teaching and Learning oversees the selection of the Maroon Edition book. For more information, visit .