Life on the Mississippi
by Mark Twain · first published 1883
53% recommend47% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Memoir of Twain's years as a steamboat pilot, with vivid detail on river work before the Civil War and the skills and status of pilots; readers praise it as informative and entertaining.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
At once a romantic history of a mighty river, an autobiographical account of Twains early steamboat days, and a storehouse of humorous anecdotes and sketches, here is the raw material from which Mark Twain wrote his finest novel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
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…wandering around. Look up the early years of engineering. Read certain chapters of the excellent Structures, or Why Things Don't Fall Down, or for a more personal view check out Chapter 20 of Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi: http://www.classicreader.com/book/2886/21/ The early history of tall buildings is the history of towers falling down. The early history of modern bridges is the history of bridges collapsing. The early…
on “You're a Bad Programmer. Embrace It.” ↗Must read? 1984 and Animal Farm. Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Life on the Mississippi and Roughing It. Emma and Pride and Prejudice. Iliad, Odyssey and first half of the Aeneid. A Room With A View and The Picture of Dorian Gray. The Great Gatsby, Call of the Wild and Age of Innocence.…
on “Ask HN: What are some must read books?” ↗…saragossa 9. The Three Musketeers 10. A Scanner Darkly 11. The Man in the High Castle 12. Do Androids dream of Electronic Sheep 13. Ubik 14. Valis, basically almost every book by Phil Dick. 15. Life on the Mississippi. 16. The Garden of Forking Paths 17. Dhalgren 18. The Gods of Pegāna, basically all the fantasy work of Dunsany. 19. The Lathe of Heaven. Anything by LeGuin. 20. Their Eyes Were Watching God 21.…
on “Ask HN: What is your favorite fiction book?” ↗Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi is a criminally under-rated book in this aspect, specifically the first half. Twain related how riverboat pilots talked, navigated, trained, and dispensed info on the Might Mo and how they formed a union…
on “Launch HN: Modern Labor (YC W19) – Paying People to Learn to Code” ↗Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi has a good bit in it on the perils and triumphs of the Mississippi River Boat Pilots. Their special status on the ante-bellum Mississippi has a lot of parallels to today's tech workers and the challenges…
on “Google under investigation for ‘Thanksgiving Four’ firings, discouraging unions” ↗When I've needed to laugh I've read and reread: Mark Twain's "Life on the Mississippi" and "Roughing It" as well as many short stories, esp. "My Watch", "Political Economy", "Journalism in Tennessee" Also short stories from others: J.S. Perelman's "Strictly From Hunger", Alex Atkinson's…
on “Ask HN: Which books have you read more than once?” ↗You might enjoy the 'Two ways of seeing a river' passage [0] from Mark Twain's _Life on the Mississippi_ which treats the same idea. [0] I could not find the passage in Project Gutenberg's copy, though I found it reproduced here https://www.thoughtco.com/two-ways-of-seeing-a-river-by-mark...
on “Notes on the Slate Star Codex Controversy” ↗Mark Twain wrote a lot about the Army Corps of Engineering’s work on the Mississippi, as well as many other wonderful facts about this river and his experience as a steam boat pilot, in Life on the Mississippi, a uniquely informative and entertaining book.
on “The Controversial Plan to Unleash the Mississippi” ↗…wrote Tom Sawyer. He had many different and uncommon lifes in his life...A lot of inspiring things too. His 3 volumes autobiography is a long but amazing read, just like his letters. But my favorite is "Life on the Mississippi". All this is close to 2000 pages but it's worth reading.
on “The Impossibility of Knowing Mark Twain” ↗Life on the Mississippi is one of my favorites. It's rather discursive and lacks a strong story arc, but the descriptions of working on the river in the years before the Civil War are a window into a fascinating, lost world.
on “The Impossibility of Knowing Mark Twain” ↗…some poetry, some science fiction, humour etc. I have been pushing around writing a piece that might end up being quite long on Mark Twain and Racism, as it pertains to Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Life on the Mississippi, and Pudd'nhead Wilson. And of course in writing this there are some well known racial slurs (and some antiquated, unfamiliar ones) that will have to be quoted and referred to, which I expect would probably…
on “Ask HN: Where to publish a critical work with potentially offensive content” ↗…Old Hickory's War Babbage On the Economy of Machinery and Manufactures de Toqueville Democracy in America Darwin On the Origen of Species Foote The Civil War: A Narrative Maurois Disraeli Twain Life on the Mississippi Spector Admiral of the New Empire, The Life and Career of George Dewey Cardwell The Norton History of Technology Abbott Flatland, A Romance of Many Dimensions Meyer & Brysac Tournament of Shaddows,…
on “PG's Rarely Asked Questions” ↗…didn't do my schoolwork and just read, or in my twenties when I was a committed non-productive member of society. Recently I read a lot of Mark Twain (Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn, Puddn'head Wilson, Life on the Mississippi) I think it took about 3-4 weeks, so yeah a book a week. Luckily I have an e-reader now so I could get it in otherwise yeah I wouldn't have managed it. In short - that got on my nerves and I think this…
on “Fuck You Startup World (2016)” ↗…strength! Blood's my natural drink, and the wails of the dying is music to my ear! Cast your eye on me, gentlemen!—and lay low and hold your breath, for I'm bout to turn myself loose!” ― Mark Twain, Life on the Mississippi
on “Bullshit Ability as an Honest Signal of Intelligence” ↗Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Caroll Alan Turing: The Enigma by Andrew Hodges Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain The Teenage Liberation Handbook: How to Quit School and Get a Real Life and Education by Grace Llewellyn
on “What are you reading?” ↗