Life on the Mississippi

I now know more about steamboats than is seemly for someone in today's world.

Joking aside, this book delivers on its promise of a good look at the life on the Mississippi River. And like the Mighty Mississip., it branches out into some unexpected places: corpse-watching in Germany, detailed descriptions of upperclass living rooms in St. Louis, trash-talking some author named Walter Scott, and even an extended scene from “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn”, used to illustrate the fantastic swearing that rivermen used to do. The most memorable passages for me were the ones that described the shifting of the riverbanks and the scenery alongside them; quite evocative.

NOTE: This book is in the public domain, and can be found for free on the Kindle and on Project Gutenberg (and in your local library, of course!).

Curious one this. Despite my love of Twain's writing, I found myself slogging through the second half. This is really two books, as the story of its publication reveals. The first half is a brilliant, witty account of Twain's own piloting days. It's riveting. But the second half, or more accurately the second two thirds, ostensibly Twain's account of a later life journey of nostalgia and rediscovery up the river, seems like a rather general collection of anecdotes and tales only loosely bound by the Mississipi. The individual pieces are at times vintage Twain, but somehow the whole is less than the sum of the parts. Unlike the river, it lacks flow. I'd put it down after one chapter and find I wasn't compelled to pick it up again. But don't overlook it on this account. There is a wealth of interest in here, a portrait of a vanished time, intimately drawn by one of the English language's best writers and most astute observers.

I'd like to give it 3.5 stars, but since Goodreads allows me only integers, I'm compelled at length to round down to 3 rather than up to 4.

This is a very detailed memoir which focuses specifically on the author's life while apprenticing and working as a steam boat pilot, and later on travelling on the Mississippi river (why does this thing has so many double letters???!).
When I say “very detailed” I mean VERY detailed. We get a large portion of minute facts and feelings related to the pilot job, as well as quite a few anecdotes.

I very much enjoyed the read, though I suspect it will likely be considered rather dry and boring by the majority of readers.

The author spares no effort to describe the river, the job, the people, the boats, the organisations... There is a good amount of the characteristic for the author sarcasm, which made me cackle quite a few times.

It was a good relaxing read.

The popular 19th-century humorist offers lively recollections ranging from his salad days as a novice steamboat pilot on one of the world's greatest rivers to views from the passenger deck in the twilight of the river culture's heyday. Engrossing and entertaining anecdotes by a peerless storyteller from a now-finished chapter of American history.

Review

Memoir of the steamboat era on the Mississippi River before the American Civil War by Mark Twain, published in 1883. The book begins with a brief history of the river from its discovery by Hernando de Soto in 1541. Chapters 4-22 describe Twain's career as a Mississippi steamboat pilot, the fulfillment of a childhood dream. The second half of Life on the Mississippi tells of Twain's return, many years after, to travel the river from St. Louis to New Orleans. By then the competition from railroads had made steamboats passe, in spite of improvements in navigation and boat construction. Twain sees new, large cities on the river, and records his observations on greed, gullibility, tragedy, and bad architecture. – The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

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