“Mark Twain was the first truly American writer, and all of us since are his heirs.”

--William Faulkner

A brilliant amalgam of remembrance and reportage, by turns satiric, celebratory, nostalgic, and melancholy, Life on the Mississippi evokes the great river that Mark Twain knew as a boy and young man and the one he revisited as a mature and successful author. Written between the publication of his two greatest novels, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn , TwainÂ’s rich portrait of the Mississippi marks a distinctive transition in the life of the river and the nation, from the boom years preceding the Civil War to the sober times that followed it.

Library of America Paperback Classics feature authoritative texts drawn from the acclaimed Library of America series and introduced by todayÂ’s most distinguished scholars and writers. Each book features a detailed chronology of the authorÂ’s life and career, and essay on the choice of the text, and notes.

The contents of this Paperback Classic are drawn from Mark Twain: Mississippi Writings , volume number 5 in the Library of America series. It is joined in the series by six companion volumes, gathering the collected works of Mark Twain.