Mississippi Steamboats Natchez and Robert E. Lee. From "Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain (1883). First edition
"The time made by the R. E. Lee from New Orleans to St. Louis in 1870, in her famous race with the Natchez, is the best on record, and, inasmuch as the race created a national interest, we give below her time from port to port. The R. E. Lee left New Orleans, Thursday, June 30th, 1870, at 4 o'clock and 55 minutes, p.m; reached St Louis in 3 days, 18 hours, 14 minutes." [From "Life on the Mississippi," page 204]
“Life on the Mississippi” is a classic travel story by Mark Twain, which contains an account of his childhood experiences, as well as his life on the river as a steamboat pilot. It is his first-hand look at navigating the Mississippi by riverboat and the changes that came about after the Civil War. The book was written at about the same time as “Huckleberry Finn” and shares several themes with that classic. Huck Finn makes a lengthy cameo on pages 42–61, a story within the chapter detailing Huck and Jim's attempt to reach Cairo which does not appear in Huckleberry Finn, published two years later.
In September 1883, “The Atlantic Monthly” published a review of the book, in which the following was said: "The material offered by observations on the journey is various beyond enumeration, and much of it is extremely amusing. Hoaxes and exaggerations palmed off by pilots and other natives along the way upon supposed ignorant strangers; stories of gamblers and obsolete robbers; glimpses of character and manners; descriptions of scenery and places; statistics of trade; Indian legends; extracts from the comments of foreign travelers, -- all these occur, interspersed with two or three stories of either humorous or tragic import, or of both together."
Mississippi Steamboats Natchez and Robert E. Lee. From "Life on the Mississippi" by Mark Twain (1883). First edition
"The time made by the R. E. Lee from New Orleans to St. Louis in 1870, in her famous race with the Natchez, is the best on record, and, inasmuch as the race created a national interest, we give below her time from port to port. The R. E. Lee left New Orleans, Thursday, June 30th, 1870, at 4 o'clock and 55 minutes, p.m; reached St Louis in 3 days, 18 hours, 14 minutes." [From "Life on the Mississippi," page 204]
“Life on the Mississippi” is a classic travel story by Mark Twain, which contains an account of his childhood experiences, as well as his life on the river as a steamboat pilot. It is his first-hand look at navigating the Mississippi by riverboat and the changes that came about after the Civil War. The book was written at about the same time as “Huckleberry Finn” and shares several themes with that classic. Huck Finn makes a lengthy cameo on pages 42–61, a story within the chapter detailing Huck and Jim's attempt to reach Cairo which does not appear in Huckleberry Finn, published two years later.
In September 1883, “The Atlantic Monthly” published a review of the book, in which the following was said: "The material offered by observations on the journey is various beyond enumeration, and much of it is extremely amusing. Hoaxes and exaggerations palmed off by pilots and other natives along the way upon supposed ignorant strangers; stories of gamblers and obsolete robbers; glimpses of character and manners; descriptions of scenery and places; statistics of trade; Indian legends; extracts from the comments of foreign travelers, -- all these occur, interspersed with two or three stories of either humorous or tragic import, or of both together."