Customer Reviews

Mark Twain: Life on the Mississippi (Library of America Paperback Classics)

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Mark Twain is synonymous worldwide with the Mississippi River, mainly because of the Tom Sawyer/Huck Finn stories. However, Life on the Mississippi is just as important and, in a testament to Twain's greatness, nearly as readable despite being non-fiction. It details his history with the river and gives an overview of the river itself; this may sound boring, and almost certainly would be with anyone else, but I long ago decided that even Twain's laundry list would be worth reading, and this certainly is. The magic he seemed to bring to everything is in full force; one would be very hard-pressed to find another non-fiction book that is so entertaining, besides Twain's others of course, but it is also awesomely informative. In addition, Life is historically notable as the first book written on a typewriter, not Huck as is commonly thought; however, it made Twain able to finish Huck, which he had struggled with for some years and set aside. Huck fans and scholars will want to read Life for this alone, but it is more than worthy in itself.

Twain starts by giving some basic facts and history; this is the least interesting part but only lasts a few pages, and I urge anyone bored by it to continue. Much of the information is of course dated but remains historically valuable as a portrait of the river as it then stood. Far more interesting is Twain's unforgettable rundown of his years as a riverboat pilot - a central life experience that led to much of his writing. We get a fascinating glimpse of this long-vanquished trade, which was all but unthinkable even when Life was published. It is important to recall that Twain was a pilot before such boats had steam or even lights at night. He details piloting's extraordinary difficulties with engrossing detail and typical self-deprecating humor. We learn much along the way about the riverboat lifestyle, the river itself, and riverside towns. Anyone curious about what it was like to live in this era and/or how its inhabitants thought and acted will find a wealth of information; we learn as much here as in any history book, and it is of course infinitely better written. Life covers a crucial American history era and is an important primary source even for those not interested in Twain and certainly essential for anyone who is, as it gives substantial background about a crucial part of his life. The book is indeed in part a bildungsroman; Twain had always loved the river and began pilot training soon after first leaving home. He structures the narrative so that it reads much like a story, and we see him grow from naïveté and ignorance to an admirable experience and wisdom.

Twain then details a trip he made on the river many years later, noting what changed and what stayed the same. There is significant autobiographical material here also, but the crux is descriptive. Twain describes the river's whole length and everything having to do with it as he goes, making it all utterly absorbing. As always, there are many eminently readable tangents. Several are autobiographical - reminisces as well as then recent events. Particularly interesting is Twain's profoundly touching visit to his hometown after a long absence. However, a good part of Life has nothing to do with the river directly but is at least as engrossing as what does. Twain's many asides are full of wit and insight; few have ever probed so deeply into life and humanity, and we are lucky to have his wisdom, much of which is hilarious. Especially engaging are observations on North/South differences, notably including the Civil War. Twain's sociopolitical criticism is also as brilliant as ever, taking on everything from architecture to Walter Raleigh to speech. Finally, Life would be valuable even if lacking all this because it passes on an invaluable treasure of American folklore.

Life is quite simply required reading for anyone even remotely interested in American literature; it is essential Twain, which makes it simply essential.

I bought the book for a trip I was taking down the Mississippi River during the summer of 2010. It did not disappoint. There was all of Twain's wit, great storytelling, and wonderful descriptions of the River that served as a wonderful campanion for our family's trip.

I purchased this edition of Life on the Mississippi because I know that Library of America books are the highest quality and most definitive editions available of the works they publish.

This edition includes an introduction written by Jonathan Rabin, a British travel writer and novelist (Passage to Juneau, Bad Land: An American Romance (winner of a National Book Critics Circle Award), Old Glory: A Voyage Down the Mississippi, and Surveillance). It also includes an 8 page chronology of Twain's life, notes on the text used in the book, and footnotes.

The book is a paperback but larger format than most - essentially identical in size to the Library of America hardcover editions - and as all other LOA editions it is printed on very high quality paper (acid free).

In his introduction, Rabin states that "Later in life, Twain would claim Life on the Mississippi as his own favorite among his books", and articles originally appearing in the Atlantic Monthly in 1875 served as the starting point.

This is nonfiction from Mark Twain, reporting his recollections of experiences he gained beginning in about April, 1857, when he became a cub pilot on the Mississippi, and culminating in May 1861, when he made his last trip on the river as a pilot (at age 25). Being nonfiction it is unlike his novels Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, but it is every bit as enjoyable to read.

This Library of America printing is a fine edition to purchase if you want a high quality book for your library, and you care that the text of the book is the most accurate available (see below), and it is very reasonably priced. There are many different and cheaper printings available, but not to these standards. This is the version I will always recommend to anyone wanting to add this to their collection or give to someone as a gift.

For those who are interested in the specifics of why this edition is different from ANY other presently available (other than LOA's own hardcover), I offer the following, from the Library of America website (this came from their explanation for the hardcover LOA book Mark Twain : Mississippi Writings : Tom Sawyer, Life on the Mississippi, Huckleberry Finn, Pudd'nhead Wilson which in addition to Life on the Mississippi, includes the three mentioned other novels by Twain. I have edited this to retain only the comments relevant to Life on the Mississippi:

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"The book reprinted in this volume is presented in the best text now available. As early as January, 1866, Clemens had contemplated writing a travel book about the Mississippi River. Five years later, he told his wife that he proposed to spend two months on the river and take notes, but the actual beginning of "the Mississippi book" did not come until William Dean Howells, editor of the Atlantic Monthly, pressed Clemens for a contribution to follow "A True Story" (November, 1874). Clemens wrote twice to Howells on October 24, 1874, first to say "my head won't 'go,' " next to propose a topic. While walking in the woods with his friend and pastor, Joseph Twichell, he explained, he "got to telling him about old Mississippi days of steamboating glory & grandeur" as he had seen them from the pilot house. Twichell exclaimed, "What a virgin subject to hurl into a magazine!" The work that resulted went into seven issues of the Atlantic, January through August, 1875, omitting July.

The contribution to the Atlantic was not nearly enough to make a subscription book, however, and only after a series of efforts to persuade Howells or some other friend to accompany him on a note-taking visit to the Mississippi did Clemens at last undertake the journey in 1882. By the terms of his contract for the book with James R. Osgood, Clemens became in effect his own publisher, Osgood--who had no experience in the publishing of subscription books--his agent.

Clemens redivided chapters, revised chapter titles, added "The Record of Some Famous Trips" (334-36), made perhaps forty-five other changes, and the Atlantic material became chapters IV through XVII of the book. In composing the additional forty-six chapters--a wearying task--Clemens made voluminous use of his own travel notes and padded the work with previously written but unpublished tales, such as "The Professor's Yarn" (chapter XXXVI). He also borrowed perhaps 11,000 words from other writers. Most interestingly, he took the "raft passage" from his manuscript for what later became Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and incorporated it in "Frescoes from the Past" (chapter III). Indeed, he crowded so many pages into his manuscript that some became superfluous; he was able to omit some 13,000 to 15,000 words and to move other material to appendices.

The first American edition (1883) is reprinted here. Ultimately, the methodically prepared text of the future will involve a comparison of the first American edition and the holograph manuscript held since 1909 by the J. Pierpont Morgan Library. The manuscript contains matter not in the book, and the book, matter not in the manuscript. Except for a few pages that Clemens called "the eighth batch" and--because of the illness of his typist--sent to Osgood in holograph form, the first American edition was set from a typescript made from the Morgan manuscript. Only a few pages of the typescript survive (at the Morgan Library and at the Houghton Library, Harvard). Clemens revised both the typescript and printer's proofs. That collating the manuscript with the first American edition will reveal errors in the book text has been shown by Willis Wager in "A Critical Edition of the Morgan Manuscript of Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi," a dissertation submitted at New York University, Washington Square College, 1942. A few original manuscript readings are given in the notes that follow at 233.3, 380.14, 451.32, and 516.27-28.

The standards for American English continue to fluctuate and in some ways were different in earlier periods from what they are now. In nineteenth-century writings, for example, a word might be spelled in more than one way, even in the same work. Commas could be used expressively to suggest the movements of voice, and capitals sometimes gave significances to a word beyond those it might have in its lower-case form. Since modernization would remove these effects, this volume has preserved the spelling, punctuation, capitalization, and wording of the editions reprinted here.

The present edition is concerned only with presenting the texts of these editions; it does not attempt to reproduce features of the typographic design--such as the display capitalization of chapter openings. Footnotes within the text are those supplied by Clemens. Open contractions are retained if they appeared in the original edition. Typographical errors in the other editions used here have also been corrected."
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How is it a book written 120 years ago can still be so funny? He's just that good. It's true, some pieces of this are dated and, frankly, the facts regarding populations and cargo tonnage and numbers of schools in various towns is not very interesting, but there is only so much of that to put up with. Most of the rest is just pure fun to read. Some of it, laugh-out-loud fun to read. And it comes down not so much to the stories themselves but how Twain tells them with such great wit and perfect turn of phrase. If you like Twain, this is a must.

Mark Twain's-how to describe it?-reminiscences cum travelogue takes you on an expansive tour of the Mississippi river.Twain reveals where he got his nom de plume,tells of his time as a steamboat pilot and compares the pre civil war Mississippi to the progressive America of 1882.
In between acts he gives us a preview chapter of his upcoming novel 'Huckleberry Fynn' (though I cant for the life of me recall it in the book, though its a long while since I read it),a few tall tales,statistics of the river and its Towns and would have us believe that his childhood hero was a carpenter who confessed to being a serial killer!
I love Mark Twain. As it says in the introduction, this is a great 'hodgepodge' of a book,being statistical journelese one moment,then pure Twain the next,and its this pure Twain that keeps you on board reading even the appendices at the end!
Its obvious Twain couldn't stand the twee 'Merry England' novels of Sir Walter Scott,which no doubt he deplored as a boy,but I think he's dragging us into one of his famous exagerations when he blames Scott, not only for the outdated chivelry nonsense that plagued the Southern sensibilities of his day,but also for being the fundamental cause of the civil war!! As I say, pure Twain!
I guess if we went back to the days of 'sexist' literature-'Boy's' books and 'Girl's' books-'Life on...' would be a boys book,but it is also a fascinating piece of historical reading; Twain looking back on a bygone era whilst we today read his 130 year old account of things.
And when looking back on historical times,who better to read than someone who was there? Who better to read than Mark Twain?

After 82 years you would think that this book would be in my distant past. If I had known of all the history about my state of Arkansas, that lies along the Mississippi River, I would have read my favorite Mark Twain book years ago. The book gave me an opportunity to sit and listen to 19th century conversations. It has become one of my reference books.