Life on the Mississippi

Introduction

(1883)

This is Twain's memoir of his youthful years as a cub pilot on a steamboat on the Mississippi River. Twain used his childhood experiences growing up along the Mississippi in a number of works, including The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, but nowhere is the river and the pilot's life more thoroughly described than in this work. Told with insight, humor, and candor, this is another American classic.

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Recent Forum Posts on Life on the Mississippi

childhood

The literature of Mr. Twain reminds of childhood and is such a reckoning link to memories of Missouri and the times we moved away to Texas and Oklahoma. The birth of my children brought me back to Life On The Mississippi as I chose to read to them the descriptive phrases about the river itself. It speaks of life in its abundance and circumstance.

Posted By mlcs3824 at Fri 9 Nov 2007, 6:49 PM in Life on the Mississippi || 2 Replies

No Subject

I'm about half way through this book and it is one of the best i've ever read. through the first 100 pages i felt like i was on the river right along side mr clemens. a must read for anyone who loves the mississippi

Posted By Ryan Marquardt at Tue 24 May 2005, 10:07 PM in Life on the Mississippi || 0 Replies

Romanticism

does anyone else believe that mark twain was a closet romanticist. Think about it huckelberry Finn wasnt the main character in The adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the Mississippi River was. Mark Twain has given us clues to how he hated being a realist. I would like to find these clues. Please if you have any information on this subject please email me at [email protected]. thank you for reading this post.

Posted By Bill Seeds at Tue 24 May 2005, 10:07 PM in Life on the Mississippi || 0 Replies

Reading the River

Today my English 121 class had to narrate "Reading the River." I thought this article was written very poetically. I can tell that Mr. Twain was very familiar with the Missippi. I enjoyed how his details and description. Sentences such as...The face of the water in time became a wonderful book-a book that was a dead language to the uneducated passenger but which told its mind to me without reserve, delivering its most cherished secrets as clearly as if it uttered them with a voice...really describe how aware Twain was of the different changes of the Missippi. We read from "One Hundred Great Essays-Robert Diyanni. I plan to read the entire book. I was stuck like paste to paper after reading the first paragraph.

Posted By lima bn at Tue 24 May 2005, 10:07 PM in Life on the Mississippi || 0 Replies

memories

In 1954, 71 years after this work was released, I was introduced to
this book at the ripe old age of 9. It was a paddlewheeler for sure -
taking me away on the river of dreams. I lived on the Mississippi in Quincy, Illinois, just a tad or two from where Mark Twain ruled in his
legendary home of Hannibal.
As a child and a river rat of the time, I survived the river of dreams.
By and by I discovered the truth that beauty is only skin deep.
I could not see the grim reaper submerged and reaching up for
me - escaping his cluthes many times while swimming and hand fishing.
Reflecting on the wonder of it all is the image of generations of those
who read and to some degree lived out the imagination of one single,
prolific writer, who is looking up or down at us now, with a twinkle or a tear in his eye..................

Posted By Mark at Tue 24 May 2005, 10:07 PM in Life on the Mississippi || 0 Replies

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