Mark Twain at his best!: I've been reading a lot of classic literature recently, and I also recently saw the Mississippi River for the first time...so this book seemed liked the perfect one for me to read right now.
This is a "non-fictional" book by Mark Twain. (I guess that means based on some truth but embelished in various ways?) In it he recalls the years he spent during his youth as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. Then he suddenly jumps forward many years in the book to when he is an older man. As an older man, he decides to go back and travel on the Mississippi River again. He finds the river much changed. The course of time (the Civil War has come and gone, the expansion of the railroad, and the forces of nature) have greatly changed life on the river. The once thriving steamboat trade has almost disapeared.
Besides his personal recollections, he also includes other interesting stories,history,folklore, talltales, and such. It is written in typical Mark Twain style - his dry sense of humor will bring a smile to your face. I really enjoyed this book.

PHIL ANDERSON: The shorter original magazine version, Old Times on the Mississippi is also worth reading

The first glimpse of the remarkable talent and the wonderful books to follow. In his time, this was often viewed as his best work. ( )

Twain spends the first half of the book recounting his childhood in Hannibal, Missouri and his early fascination with steamboats, followed by a long stretch describing his apprenticeship as a steamboat pilot. Along the way he spices the narrative with his trademark sarcasm and humor, tall tales he heard as a pilot {and one assumes a few he invented}, and a detailed and yet poetic description of the Mississippi River that serves as an elegiac biography of the Big Muddy. Twain uses the second half of the book to detail his return to the Mississippi, taking passage from St. Louis down to New Orleans, and all the way back up to the source at St. Paul, Minnesota. With a bittersweet voice he describes the differences in the steam-boating trade, and the local color of his many stops along the way, with long sections on New Orleans and his childhood home of Hannibal. Race relations, economics, river engineering, and tall tales are main topics. Mild profanity, some sexual innuendo, a few graphic depictions of violence and or accidents.

9.8