Life on the Mississippi Essay -- essays research papers

life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain is his journal ab forbidden vital river life during the steamboat era and a melancholy remembrance of it later the Civil War. Mark Twain tells of his life on the river, humorous folktales, and a glimpse of Twains life during his childhood years. The Mississippi River was a major break out of Mark Twains life. The river In the three introductory ones which precede these, the physical extension of the river is sketched, and brief reference is made to the early travelers and explorers of the stream, -- De Soto, Marquette, and La Salle these latter be to the epoch of what Mr. Clemens quaintly calls "historical history," as distinguished from that other bohemian history, which he does not define, but certainly embodies in the most graphic form. There ar some good touches in this opening dowry as where the author refers to "Louis XIV., of inflated memory," and, speaking of indifference which attended the discovery ofthe Missis sippi, remarks, "Apparently, nonentity happened to want such a river, nobody needed it, nobody was curious about it so, for a century and a half, the Mississippi remained out of the market and undisturbed. When De Soto found it, he was not hunting for a river, and had no present occasion for one consequently he did not measure out it, or even take any particular notice of it." We are also presented with a chapter from an unpublished work by the writer, detailing the adventures of a southw...