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  • Published: 3 March 2009
  • ISBN: 9780451531209
  • Imprint: Signet
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 400
  • RRP: $14.99

Life on the Mississippi




At once a romantic history of a mighty river, an autobiographical account of Twain's early steamboat days, and a storehouse of humorous anecdotes and sketches, here is the raw material from which Mark Twain wrote his finest novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.

Hannibal, Missouri, on the banks of the Mississippi River, was host to riverboat travelers from around the world, providing a vigorous and variable atmosphere for the young Samuel Clemens to absorb. Clemens became a riverboat pilot and even chose his pen name—Mark Twain—from a term boatmen would call out signifying water depth at two fathoms, meaning safe clearance for travel. It was from this background that Life on the Mississippi emerged. It is an epochal record of America’s growth, a stirring remembrance of her vanished past. And it earned for its author his first recognition as a serious writer. 

With an Introduction by Justin Kaplan
and an Afterword by John Seelye

  • Published: 3 March 2009
  • ISBN: 9780451531209
  • Imprint: Signet
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 400
  • RRP: $14.99

Other books in the series

The New Penguin Book Of American Short Stories, From Washington Irving To Lydia Davis
When You Are Old
The Black Tulip
The Lady of the Camellias
Selected Poetry
Venus in Furs
Man and Superman
Military Dispatches
The Prelude

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