Date: 28 May 2017
Location: John & Marion
The Happy Bookers met at John and Marion’s to discuss Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi. We were puzzled as to what kind of book it was since different parts were of several different genres:
- geography of the river—the opening section and many passages about the river changing its channel, its shoals, and its snags
- personal memoir—most of the first half concerning his time as cub and then pilot, including the death of his brother, and some of the second part concerning his return incognito to the river
- social observation and history—occasional description of types of passengers; the history of the establishment of a pilots’ guild, the lives of pilots as river traffic gave way to the railroad
- commercial geography—mentions of towns, their kinds of commerce, and their rail service; this became more frequent (and boring) as the book wound down on the approach to St. Paul
- comic routines—the raftsmen passage, the spiel by a pilot to Twain incognito featuring shoals of alligators
- personal commentary on various topics, one being cremation
So what kind of book was this? One theory was that Twain gathered up miscellaneous material that he had on hand and threw it together. Perhaps he did this, or did some hasty writing, because of being in need of income. He was in fact hard up at times because of bad investments, notably in a type-setting machine.
Several favorite passages, mostly jokes, were mentioned. It was noted that there were a few passages of beautiful description of nature. An interesting note concerned how Twain chose his nom de plume: he had savaged a piece by a journalist who wrote under that name, and then in remorse he took the name himself after the death of the previous Mark Twain.
— John