Old Times on the Mississippi

by Mark Twain, Russell Lee (Editor)

This is a rare non-fiction autobiographical story by Mark Twain in which he talks about his early days of riding on a steamboat throughout the Mississippi River. His experiences on this river would later help him write his famous fictional stories involving Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. This version of the book features old pictures of the river and the steamboats of the 1800s.

Genres: Nonfiction, Classics, Memoir

124 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1876

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens, known by the pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist and essayist. He was praised as the "greatest humorist the United States has produced," with William Faulkner calling him "the father of American literature." His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), with the latter often called the "Great American Novel." Twain also wrote A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court (1889) and Pudd'nhead Wilson (1894), and co-wrote The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today (1873) with Charles Dudley Warner.

Reviews

[Haley Anderson]

I found the descriptions of the Mississippi distractingly boring to be honest.

[Jaime]

This was a good book and very funny about being a steam boat captain. Really opened my eyes to how hard it is.

[Lindsay]

By the mark. Mark one! Mark twain! Half-twain. Mark three. Mark four. Deep four. Ocean D-e-e-p.

[Joyce]

Samuel Clemens took the pseudonym Mark Twain as a result of his riverboat days, mark twain is a pilots term for measuring river depth.

There are 5 sections in the reading, with subheadings of:
I. “Cub” wants to be a Pilot
II. Learning the River.
III. Continued Perplexities.
IV. Training nearly completed.
V. Sounding.

A young man wants to be the Pilot of a riverboat. After finding a licensed Pilot to train him he discovers piloting isn’t all that easy. It involves more learning and memory than anything he has ever had to do before.

[Xavier]

Always a good time reading someone talk about their trade passionately. This does a great job of explaining the technicalities of piloting a steam boat while keeping the prose casual.


The topic was a bit boring but the exuberance of the author undertaking his task more than balanced it out.

side note: When Bixby is asking MT if the river is rising or falling I got flashbacks to the dragging or rushing scene from Whiplash. The master student dynamic here is timeless.

[Alyssa]

I read this for a class; or better yet, I was supposed to. I didn't finish it because I couldn't make myself care about what it as like to be the pilot of a steamboat. I pushed through the first three chapters, read chapter four, and only skimmed the rest so I would be able to pass the online quiz I had. I found the lengthy details to be insufferably boring.

[Audrey]

Mark Twain writes about his experiences as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River before the American Civil War. There were a lot of challenges to face and lessons to learn since the river was constantly changing. It was somewhat interesting and informative regarding a past era in history.

[Heidi Buker]

While this isn't normally the type of book I'd choose, I found it quite interesting. If you want to know what life as a pilot was like on a river boat in the mudv1800s, this book is a wealth of information.

[Mar Falcon]

maybe interesting if you read into its (socioeconomic) implications at the time and the kind of statements it’s interested in making (about associations/unions, etc) but the reading experience itself was boring

[Hassan Awan]

What an insightful book. If you find yourself drawn to Twain's character and hunger for a dive into his young years, this book is a great place to start.

Punch in the presence of the passenger!

[Sanzana Jess]

Quite a nice reading, this one.

[Ellis S]

Mark Twain’s writing is excellent, the subject matter is dry but at the same time it’s well described. I kept thinking of my dad while I was reading

[lnor]

Boy you talk too much

[Brennon Shanks]

“And doesn’t he sometimes wonder whether he has gained most or lost most by learning his trade?”

[Stormcrow Hayes]

A delightful account of life in the 50s, the 1850s, as Twain apprentices as a "cub" to a riverboat pilot.

I found this book thoroughly delightful, but I could just as easily see how other readers might find his detailed account of the mighty Mississippi too detailed or boring. I found it neither and delighted in every detail and anecdote.

Early on, he writes of how the captain would remark, "This is Six-Mile Point, this is Nine-Mile Point" but when quizzed on it later, Twain had no idea he was supposed to remember the names of those points. He thought the captain was just being "entertaining." His answer unleashes a tirade of profanity that, once spent, allows the pilot to inform Twain that he must remember every point along the entire river and so much more. Twain cannot believe how much he is supposed to remember and does not think it possible, but soon he learns the ways to read the river as his knowledge and skills increase.

Rich in detail and full of fun stories, I thoroughly enjoyed this very select period of Twain's autobography.

[Joel]

"Old Times on the Mississippi" reminded me of a miniature, less absorbing Moby Dick, with a river instead of a whale. Humorous tales of heroics and failures mixed with Twain's firsthand experience as a pilot/cub, giving me an appreciation for an artform I hadn't thought about much before now. Huckleberry Finn inspired my love for rafting and the river, but after finishing this I cannot confess the same inspiration, but rather a melancholy that steamboating and all of it's intricacies have gone the way of the librarian. Oh wait

[Paul Harsin]

Interesting to History buffs

This autobiographical work was used as a rough draft for Mark's Life On The Mississippi. It pulls the reader along by the lapels to the end. I have read must of Mark's published works over the past 60 years, always imagining I could put myself in his shadow. No other American humorist can equal his sense of "style".

[Dan]

I liked it more than Huckleberry Finn. :)

I learned more from it.

[Rat Boy Hedonist]

They call out mark twain to gauge the depth of the water....he spent a lot of time on boats...he heard mark twain a lot...he wrote about it....OH MY GOD THATS WHY HIS NAME IS MARK TWAIN

[Bobby Daugherty]

Twain's recollections of having been a riverboat captain in his youth. A highly technical job at the time.