Life on the Mississippi

Twain as a steamboat cub, then the river again as a famous man. Hear Life on the Mississippi unabridged in English: shoals, leads, pilots' lore, a highway already being outrun by the railway. American comedy with a sounding-pole. When he returns, the river has begun to be a souvenir. Jokes, jargon, the knowledge that a trade can die while you are still proud of it. Memoir and tall tale on the same water. The Mississippi as school, then as a vanishing world you can still hear.