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Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi, 1883

This first edition describes life on the Mississippi River both before and after the American Civil War.  

Mark Twain recounts his colourful life as a steamboat pilot with a blend of fact and fiction incorporating both affection and humour.

2024 RGSSA 6734

Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi was published by Chatto and Windus, Piccadilly at the same time in the United States and Great Britain.  In it he recounts his colourful life as a steamboat pilot with a blend of fact and fiction, nostalgia, affection, humour and colourful descriptions of the river and its people.

At the start of the book the following quotation is given describing the sheer size of the Mississippi and its catchment -

But the basin of the Mississippi is the Body of the Nation. All other parts are but members, important in themselves, yet more important in their relation to this basin (which) contains about 1,250,000 square miles.  In extent it is the second great valley of the world, being exceeded only by that of the Amazon (Harper's Magazine, February, 1863).

Mark Twain's real name was Samuel Langhorne Clemens. He was born in Missouri, United States in 1835 and died 1910 in Connecticut.  Considered one of the greatest American writers, he is best remembered for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1885).  He was among the first to use everyday speech in his writing. Although a skilled humorist he also had firm views on many social issues such as slavery, which he viewed as an "abomination".

A gifted raconteur, distinctive humorist and irascible moralist, he transcended the apparent limitations of his origins to become a popular public figure and one of America's best and most beloved writers. (Britannica)

Born prematurely Mark Twain suffered poor health throughout his childhood. Spoiled by his mother he was mischievous and tried his mother's patience. When she was in her 80's he asked her if she was afraid he wouldn’t live. She replied "No, afraid you would ".

Life on the Mississippi

rg 817 T a (in the upper gallery)

Mark Twain was famous for his pithy quotations - here are some examples from Life on the Mississippi -

Now and then we had a hope that if we lived and were good, God would permit us to be pirates.

It was with much satisfaction that I recognised the wisdom of having told this candid gentleman, in the beginning, that my name was Smith.

How solemn and beautiful is the thought, that the earliest pioneer of civilization, the van-leader of civilization, is never the steamboat, never the railroad, never the newspaper, never the Sabbath-school, never the missionary - but always whisky!

There is something fascinating about science. One gets such wholesale returns of conjecture out of such trifling investment of fact.

I became a new being, and the subject of my admiration. I was a traveller! The word never had tasted so good in my mouth before.

The dollar their god, how to get it their religion.

The priest explained the mysteries of the faith " by signs" for the saving of the savages; thus compensating them with possible possessions in Heaven for the ones on earth they had just been robbed of.

© The Royal Geographical Society of South Australia

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