Life on the Mississippi

Life On The Mississippi by Mark Twain.Life on the Mississippi is a memoir of Twain's personal experiences as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. As a boy, he talks his way onto the Paul Jones, a steamer, where he pays the pilot, Mr. Bixby, $500 to teach him everything he knows.Twain delivers a sonorous history of the Mississippi River, detailing its ecology and the early attempts by explorers to chart the river's often treacherous waters.Twain uses amusing personal anecdotes to paint a picture of life on the Mississippi. He describes small shore towns, lively talkers, and the victim of a wildcat.Most of all, Twain writes about his love for steamboats. He was himself a skilled pilot, and he learned how to read the currents of the notoriously fickle Mississippi River. His early education as a pilot comprises some of the best material in the memoir.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 nonfiction 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 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 America's most profound chronicler of the human comedy.The first half of the text was published in 1875 as a seven-part series in the Atlantic Monthly. Though the text was actually written after the Civil War, these first 20 chapters describe life on the river before this iconic historical event took place. Many scholars and readers feel that this section is the strongest part of the book, providing the reader with engaging pictures of life on the Mississippi in a simpler time.In fact, the author begins the book with a discussion of the archaeological history of the river and early exploration.One of Twain's early experiences on the Mississippi is the time he spent as a pilot cub on a steamboat. A pilot cub is like an assistant, learning the skills of piloting a ship while working as a junior member of the crew. The youthful Samuel Clemmons met steamboat Captain Horace Bixby on a trip to New Orleans. Twain became a steamboat captain's apprentice, giving him unique learning opportunities and skills that he shares with the reader in Life on the Mississippi.Twain writes about his love for steamboats. He was himself a skilled pilot, and he learned how to read the notoriously treacherous currents of the mighty Mississippi River. His early education as a pilot comprises some of the best material in the memoir.Unfortunately, the second part of Life on the Mississippi was written, in large part, to fulfill Twain's publishing contract. It is not quite as engaging as the first section, partly because it is not as heavily based on personal experience. Twain did return to the river in later days, after the Civil War. But his descriptions seem more fictionalized than memoir in this second section of the book.In this section, the premise is that the author wants to return to see the changes and the progress along the river as industrialization takes hold and culture changes after the war. In the text, the author, serving as a reporter and a writer chronicling the Mississippi river culture, brings along a poet and a secretary, and they travel in disguise in order to get a more authentic experience from the journey.