Published in 1883, Life on the Mississippi is part memoir and part travelogue, drawing on Mark Twain’s years working as a steamboat pilot on the great river before the Civil War. The first half, derived from his earlier Atlantic Monthly sketches, remains one of the finest accounts of the piloting craft ever written, full of vivid detail and Twain’s irresistible humor.
The second half revisits the river decades later, reflecting on how industrialization and war transformed the landscape Twain loved. Download the free EPUB at Better Gutenberg and join one of America’s greatest writers on a journey down the mighty Mississippi.