Life on the Mississippi

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

8 1.5-hour cassettes