Before he became a famous author, Twain spent some years as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi. Twain recalls his early experiences in this memoir, with particular focus on his apprenticeship. About a third of the way through the book, Twain transitions to an account of his return to the Mississippi after an absence of several decades. Twain and his companions board a steamboat at St. Louis for a journey to New Orleans, then make the return journey from New Orleans all the way to the Twin Cities. Each landmark on the journey inspires a memory of his own experience or a story he’s heard from another. This part of the book gives the impression of vignettes that Twain has assembled for the reader’s entertainment. Twain actually got two books out of his 1882 steamboat trip. He was already working on The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn when he wrote Life on the Mississippi, and he includes in it an excerpt from his work in progress. Twain’s 1882 journey was time and money well spent if it revived long-forgotten memories of river life and helped Twain hone his descriptions of the river in Huckleberry Finn. ( )

Mark Twain delivers a smooth flowing narrative of the Science of Steamboat Piloting over the 2,000 miles of The Mississippi River
that he covered in 2-l/2 years, first as a Cub, then as a licensed Pilot.

Those of us readers who may have believed that piloting the Mississippi was akin to simply steering a Steamboat down the middle
are in for a nice long surprise, from reefs, snags, towheads and on into disappearing islands and river banks.

"The face of the water, in time, became a wonderful book..."

He introduces the history of The River, form its headwaters in Itaska to white explorers: De Soto, 1542, Lewis and Clark, 1673, and La Salle, 1681.

Many small illustrations move the plot along, both through the intriguing and fun reading and over the more horrifying sections, including animal cruelty like cock fights...
still pursued in The South as dog fights...

Surprises were the excitement of the Steamboat Racing Days
and his two weeks of fighting in the Confederate Army followed by the desertion of his entire group after facing
up to Ulysses S. Grant. Redemption came in his starch anti-slavery stances.

He returns 21 years later - after the Steamboat "...occupation was gone."

I still wonder why there was so little mentioned of his brother Henry - maybe the grief was too hard to take.

It would be welcome for future editions to have Footnotes at the bottom of the pages! ( )

Mark Twain is a joy. Life on the Mississippi is part travelogue, part biography, and filled with character sketches of people and places he knew in his childhood. He makes the most boring details of river steam boating interesting and amusing. Twain's observant eyes, sharp tongue and critical wit don't miss anything, although I think he looked through rose-tinted glasses through most of his memories, even during difficult times.

The illustrations are delightful.

My favorite part of the book was probably the Appendix with his account of the horrible flood of 1882. It's an excellent piece of newspaper writing that our current crop of media couldn't touch. ( )

One of the most boring books I have ever read. ( )

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!). ( )