He was Sam Clemens, steamboat pilot, before he was Mark Twain,famous author. His better-known name originated with the lingo of navigation, and much of his writing was informed by his shipboard adventures on one of the world's great rivers. In this classic of American literature, Twain offers lively recollections ranging from his salad days as a novice pilot to views from the passenger deck in the twilight of the river culture's heyday.

Under the tutelage of the most celebrated pilot on the Mississippi,young Twain acquires the skills to navigate a constantly changing riverscape, avoiding potential collisions with other boats and traversing winding channels in the dead of night. The vivid and everengaging narrative encompasses tales of riverside town feuds, the professional vicissitudes of a riverboat gambler, dramatic accounts of life in Vicksburgi as the city lay under siege during the Civil War, and many other scenes from a now-vanished way of life. These antebellum visions take on a bittersweet cast with the author"s postwar return to the region, when railroad competition has largely doomed the commercial steamboat and the old ways of life are passing into history.

A testimonial to Twain"s repute as the most popular humorist of his day, these reminiscences crackle with comic anecdotes and energetic witticisms. Engrossing and entertaining, this volume will captivate devotees of Twain, steamboat buffs, lovers of Americana, and students of American literature.

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 Rises

12. Sounding

13. A Pilot"s Needs

14. Rank and Dignity of Piloting

15. The Pilots" Monopoly

16. Racing Days

17. Gut-offs and Stephen 

l8. I Take a Few Extra Lessons

19. Brown and I Exchange Compliments

20. ACatastrophe

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 Jacobs"

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