As part of Newsweek’s 50 Books For Our Times… I agreed to read and review this book as part of a Challenge hosted by Amy of My Friend Amy’s Blog.  I have always had a fascination with Mark Twain and this was the perfect excuse to lock myself into a read I wanted on my list anyway.  I hope you enjoy what I have learned through a little book on a big adventure on a body of water I know well…. the Mississippi.  ~ Sheila

For four of his Seventy-five years, Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain) worked at the wheel of a Mississippi Steam boat, first as an apprentice, training for his pilot license.  For Twain, this was a long time dream that never lost it’s hold.  Years later, a mature Mark Twain (already famous at that time in Europe and at home) looked back over this time as an apprentice and said this, “The Steamboat Pilot was the only unfettered and entirely independent human being that lived on the earth.”

This book is his story…

Reading about Twain’s life on the Mississippi was a treat for my mind.  I enjoy reading about the great people that I would have loved to have known and Mark Twain would make my list for just such a person.  A witty and occasionally humorous writer, Twain’s book read like a diary of his day to day life.  A format taken from the first edition of the book in 1883 and one I really enjoyed.

Mark Twain works hard to reach his dream of becoming a pilot of a Steamboat.  Outlined in great detail of not only his hard won triumphs but also his humiliating moments this was a delight to read.

When Twain returns to the Mississippi to gather material to write this book many years later, I enjoyed the descriptions of the changes that were noted.  It did not matter that at one time  he knew every corner and curve.  It was much like starting over and the land that had now been developed changed the look of the river as well.

While the book is truly a lot of information on the Mississippi and the day to day life of an apprentice and then as a Pilot, I still found it interesting.  Reading about Twain’s own brother dieing on a steamboat that Twain himself had arranged the job, was not only painful for the writer, but also as the reader.  There is information on the Civil War and Twain shares his thoughts in this book on how he feels it affected America afterward.  In a word?  Fascinating.

I purchased my copy of this book at our local bookstore, Bookworld