Funny stories and folktales from Twain’s steamboat years

Fashioned from the same experiences that would inspire the masterpiece The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Life on the Mississippi is at once an affectionate evocation of the vital river life in the steamboat era, a melancholy reminiscence of its passing after the Civil War, and a unique glimpse into Twains life before he began to write.

Written in a prose style that has been hailed as among the greatest in English literature, Life on the Mississippi established Twain as not only the most popular humorist of his time but also Americas most profound chronicler of the human comedy.