Life on the Mississippi

First published in 1883, this book joins memoir, travel, and tall tale around the Mississippi River. The first half follows a cub pilot learning the leads, crossings, and night marks under the master Horace Bixby in the 1850s, when steamboats still ruled the trade. The second half recounts Twain's return after the Civil War to a river altered by railroads, wrecks, and towns that have shrunk or swollen. Anecdotes of pilots, gamblers, and floods sit beside measurements of the stream. The book is a personal river history, not a novel and not a navigation manual.

Bound in dark blue cloth, cover blocked in gilt with a map of the Mississippi. Dark blue slipcase with colour picture pasted to front.