Just finished…I found this book enjoyable, but it lacks in the sharp humor and hilarity that makes “The Innocents Abroad” a favorite of mine. Life on the Mississippi is detailed in the telling of how and why Samuel L. Clemens chose to sneak aboard a steamboats, and work his way to become a river boat pilot. He truly loves the endless variety of people, scenery and extraordinary stories that flow along with the waters of the great river. In its 60 {Chapter I – LX} Chapters, Twain creates detailed chapter titles and subtitles to help us track his journey and musings: Here are some highlights!
Ch. I-II – Some Geography. Some History. It’s all good.
Ch. III Boy Stowaway – clearly the seeds of Huckleberry Finn were planted here.
Ch. XI A Somnabulist Pilot – Spooky and still believable.
Ch. XVI Racers and Racing – The boats steal the show.
Ch. XVII Gambler – What would a Riverboat be without a good Gambler story?
Ch. XX Thunderous Crash – Here you will read the heartbreaking irony of how Twain’s little brother Henry’s fate was tied so closely and tragically with Twain’s own.
Ch. XXI and Ch. XLV The War Begins – “All day long you hear things “placed” as having happened since the waw; or du’in the waw; or befo’ the waw….”
Ch. XXXI – The Dead House. The Hidden Money. A tale of dark treachery – and they sound like Hardy Boy’s titles.
Ch. XXXIX – Ice as Jewerly – Describes an early ice-factory in Natchez, MS!
Ch. XVL – Cock Fighting – A “must-have” in this kind of book.
Ch. XLVII – The Gilded Age – The title of one of Twain’s later books.
Ch. LIII – Boyhoods’ Pranks Again, Tom and Huck were really born right here.
Ch. L: Describes how he came to use his nome de plume after the “real Mark Twain”, a Captain Isaiah Sellers a highly revered old riverman, used to use it when writing notes about the river’s condition. Samuel Clemens mocked Sellers in his first published newspaper article. Clemens makes a sad apology to the man here as maturity makes feel the sting of his words, but it is sadder because the hurt was done.
So, there you have it! Stay tuned for my Samuel L. Clemens Book Chronology because I reckon I’m gonna read ’em all. How can you resist a man who once said, “Be Good and You Will be Lonesome.”
