Fashioned from the same experiences that would inspire the masterpiece HUCKLEBERRY FINN,LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI is Mark Twain's most brilliant and most personal nonfictional work. It is at once an affectionate evocation of the vital river life in the steamboat era and a melancholy reminiscence of its passing after the Civil War,a priceless collection of humorous anecdotes and folktales, and a unique glimpse into Twain's life before he began to write.

Fashioned from the same experiences that would inspire the masterpiece HUCKLEBERRY FINN,LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI is Mark Twain's most brilliant and most personal nonfictional work. It is at once an affectionate evocation of the vital river life in the steamboat era and a melancholy reminiscence of its passing after the Civil War,a priceless collection of humorous anecdotes and folktales, and a unique glimpse into Twain's life before he began to write.

Written in the prose which Bernard De Voto called "one of the great styles of English literature" LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI established Twain as not only the most popular humorist of his time but also as America's most profound chronicler of the human comedy.

The "Body of the Nation"

1. The River and Its History

2. The River and Its Explorers

3. Frescoes from the Past

4. The Boys" Ambition

5. I Want to be a Cub-Pilot

6. A Cub-pilot"s Experience

7. A Daring Deed

8. Perplexing Lessons

9. Continued Perplexities

10. Completing My Education

11. The River

12. Sounding

13. A Pilot"s Needs

14 Rank and Dignity f Piloting

15. "The Pilots" Monopoly

16. Racing Days

17. Cut-Offs and Stephen

18. I Take a Few Extra Lessons

19. Brown and I Exchange Compliments

20. A Catastrophe

21. A Section in My Biography

22. I Return to My Muttons

23. Traveling Incognito

24. My Incognito is Exploded

25. From Cairo to Hickman

26. Under Fire

27. Some Imported Articles

28. Uncle Mumford Unloads

29. A Few Specimen Bricks

30. Sketches by the Way

31. A Thumb-Print and What Came of It

32. The Disposal of a Bonanza

33. Refreshments and Ethics

34. Tough Yarns

35. Vicksburg during the Trouble

36. The Professor’s Yarn

37. The End of the "Gold Dust"

38. The House Beautiful

39. Manufactures and Miscreants

40. Castles and Culture

41. The Metropolis of the South

42. Hygiene and Sentiment

43. The Art of Inhumation

44. City Sights

45. Southern Sports

46. Enchantments and Enchanters

47. "Uncle Remus" and Mr. Cable

48. Sugar and Postage

49. Episodes in Pilot Life

50. The "Original Jambs" .

51. Reminiscences

52. A Burning Brand

53. My Boyhood Home

54. Past and Present

55. A Vendetta and Other Things

56. A Question of Law

57. An Archangel

58. On the Upper River

59. Legends and Scenery

60. Speculations and Conclusions

Appendix