Minn of the Mississippi

Book Description

The history of the Mississippi River Valley is told in text and pictures through the adventures of Minn, a snapping turtle, as she travels downstream.

Customer Reviews:

Amazing book for children.......2007-08-05

I love this book because it teaches so much geography and history. The pictures are amazing.

Minn of the Mississippi.......2007-05-09

Read this book as a child, and wanted it in my own personal library. Wonderful book!

Still wonderful after all these years.......2002-09-13

I read this book in elementary school and went looking for it again last year as a gift for a niece. Be warned that there's a scene that she found really sad (Minn gets hurt) -- and it made her cry. So maybe it's not for sensitive first-graders. Still, the story is wonderful and little Minn is a great character. There's also a lot of fascinating natural detail. And stunning illustrations. It's a children's book version of a top-notch Nature documentary. "Nova" in print, if you will. Also check out Holling Clancy Holling's other books. They're all great, even looking back at them after three decades.

Every child deserves a chance to read this book........2001-02-06

At age 52, I can vividly remember discovering this book in my local library as a boy in 4th grade, especially the luminous color illustrations and drawings Hollings used to tell the story of the journey of a snapping turtle from the Mississippi's trickling source in Minnesota, to its fullness in the Gulf of Mexico. In following the life of "Minn," from hatchling to a veteran survivor of many predators and adventures, I learned the history and lore of the river and the animals and people who live in it and along its banks. This is a book that does not talk down to its young readers. I am buying one now to read again, and to share with any grandchildren who may come along in our family.

This is my favorite book.......1998-11-13

I discovered this book when I was in fourth grade. I thought it was the best book ever written. I especially enjoyed the juxaposition of the biology of the snapping turtle with the history and geography of the Mississippi River

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Monday on the Mississippi
Marilyn Singer
Manufacturer: Henry Holt and Co. (BYR)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Ste-e-e-e-eamboat a-Comin'!

ASIN: 080507208X
Release Date: 2005-03-24

Book Description

he Mississippi River is as long with stories as it is with water. From its mouth at Lake Itasca, Minnesota, the river glides through cities and villages, farmlands and lakes, picking up tales of the past and present-all in the course of a week. By the time it has reached the Gulf Coast Delta in Louisiana, the river has traveled 2,300 miles on its historical, cultural journey. This lyrically written and richly illustrated picture book pays tribute to America's most legendary and celebrated river.

When the Mississippi Ran Backwards : Empire, Intrigue, Murder, and the New Madrid Earthquakes

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it's good
Very interesting account of the events around the New Madrid Quake
A unique time
Interdisciplinary history
If only all history books were this well researched..

When the Mississippi Ran Backwards : Empire, Intrigue, Murder, and the New Madrid Earthquakes
Jay Feldman
Manufacturer: Free Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0743242785

Book Description

On December 15, 1811, two of Thomas Jefferson's nephews murdered a slave in cold blood and put his body parts into a roaring fire. The evidence would have been destroyed but for a rare act of God -- or, as some believed, of the Indian chief Tecumseh.

That same day, the Mississippi River's first steamboat, piloted by Nicholas Roosevelt, powered itself toward New Orleans on its maiden voyage. The sky grew hazy and red, and jolts of electricity flashed in the air. A prophecy by Tecumseh was about to be fulfilled.

He had warned reluctant warrior-tribes that he would stamp his feet and bring down their houses. Sure enough, between December 16, 1811, and late April 1812, a catastrophic series of earthquakes shook the Mississippi River Valley. Of the more than 2,000 tremors that rumbled across the land during this time, three would have measured nearly or greater than 8.0 on the not-yet-devised Richter Scale. Centered in what is now the bootheel region of Missouri, the New Madrid earthquakes were felt as far away as Canada; New York; New Orleans; Washington, D.C.; and the western part of the Missouri River. A million and a half square miles were affected as the earth's surface remained in a state of constant motion for nearly four months. Towns were destroyed, an eighteen-mile-long by five-mile-wide lake was created, and even the Mississippi River temporarily ran backwards.

The quakes uncovered Jefferson's nephews' cruelty and changed the course of the War of 1812 as well as the future of the new republic. In When the Mississippi Ran Backwards, Jay Feldman expertly weaves together the story of the slave murder, the steamboat, Tecumseh, and the war, and brings a forgotten period back to vivid life. Tecumseh's widely believed prophecy, seemingly fulfilled, hastened an unprecedented alliance among southern and northern tribes, who joined the British in a disastrous fight against the U.S. government. By the end of the war, the continental United States was secure against Britain, France, and Spain; the Indians had lost many lives and much land; and Jefferson's nephews were exposed as murderers. The steamboat, which survived the earthquake, was sunk.

When the Mississippi Ran Backwards sheds light on this now-obscure yet pivotal period between the Revolutionary and Civil wars, uncovering the era's dramatic geophysical, political, and military upheavals. Feldman paints a vivid picture of how these powerful earthquakes made an impact on every aspect of frontier life -- and why similar catastrophic quakes are guaranteed to recur. When the Mississippi Ran Backwards is popular history at its best.

Customer Reviews:

it's good.......2006-11-03

I don't know what to say except that the book is good. It is well written and enjoyable.

Very interesting account of the events around the New Madrid Quake .......2006-10-27

The New Madrid earthquakes of 1812 were the most powerful quakes ever recorded in the contiguous United States. They were felt for hundreds of miles away. There are still visible effects of the quake in the area. If they had occurred today, they would have been a catastrophe of Biblical proportions, yet few people have even heard of them.

In this excellent popular history, Jay Feldman gives the reader a view of several major currents in the US at that time; the steam-powered riverboat, the Indian "Wars", the War of 1812, and slavery. This was a very tumultuous time for the young United States as they were still striving with the British, the Spanish and the Native Americans in a surge of expansion.

A murder is also thrown into the mix. Because of the quakes, a man who brutally murdered a slave was brought to justice.

Now someone writing anything other than a geology book would not be able to spend 200 pages on an actually earthquake and Feldman does attempt to. (Who would read it, other than a geologist?) He does an excellent job of weaving the aforementioned themes together to show the impact of the quake on the people and on larger movement in our culture.

Tecumseh, Andrew Jackson, and Meriwether Lewis are a few of the figures in the book.

I really enjoyed this book. Know too that there is a show about the New Madrid quakes on the history channel and Jay Feldman is featured.

A unique time.......2006-02-24

This is a fascinating look at the earthquakes of 1811-12 on the Mississippi River. The author does a nice job of weaving several stories together to show what the area, its people and some of the key players in American politics were like at the time. Some do not come off as very appealing characters but that is as it should be, to show people warts and all. The book is a quick read and sheds light on several less well known chapters of American history from a different perspective.

Interdisciplinary history.......2006-01-31

Along with "nanotechnology", the other big word in science at the beginning of the 21st century is "interdisciplinary". Specifically, many future technological advances will be made at the points where different sciences meet. For example, genetic engineering arises from the meeting of biology with nanotechnology. This push for interdisciplinary science is affecting the social sciences also, as the events of human history are being revisited and re-examined with an eye towards geology, climate change, ecology, etc, etc... Such is this book titled "When the Mississippi Ran Backwards...". Written by Jay Feldman, this book shows how a geological event, such as a series of massive earthquakes, can change the course of human history even if the earthquake itself does not kill that many people. The earthquakes in question here are the New Madrid earthquakes centered on the Mississippi basin in 1813 - 1814. The quakes themselves destroyed buildings throughout the region of what is now Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouria, Arkansas and Alabama. But what is more important is what people did in response to these quakes. This then is the focus of this book.

First, the Native American leader Tecumseh had previously used the threat of quakes to rally tribes to his banner in their fight against whites. When the quakes did occur, it made many Native Americans true believers in the skills of Tecumseh. Rallying to his cause, they fought all-out against Americans in the war of 1812, a war which resulted in their destruction and the loss of many of their lands.

Second, the quake turned the Miss. River into a graveyard for ships of all sizes and makes... except for one, a steamship that had just got underway. This steamship survived the roiling waters and managed to even help in the rescue of some people. The resulting fame convinced many that steamships were the wave of the future with regards to travel on the Ole Miss.

The book covers other effects due to the quakes, such as the first ever federal relief project for a natural disaster. The book makes for a great read, very interesting and enjoyable. The book also clearly illustrates how Mother Nature can affect the actions of humans and change our history.

If only all history books were this well researched.........2006-01-18

Any time an author includes a sentence beginning with 'The county court records..in 1810' in a book, you know that he has leafed through a lot of material to get his facts...

I love reading well researched and written history and this book is both. As one reviewer stated, the book does jump around, but for the most part, the book revolves around the earthquakes and the role that they played in events that Feldman is describing (the discovery of the murder victim, the Creek War etc).

My only problem with the book is that I think Feldman placed a little too much emphasis on the role that earthquakes played in the Creek War as he writes "The Creek nation...was broken, its demised, hastened, at least partly, by the New Madrid Earthquakes." This is a stretch...

Also, why he included the Battle of New Orleans in this book is beyond me. The battle took place in 1815, the earthquakes in 1811 - 1812. Yes his description ties up a few loose ends, ie The War of 1812, and was probably interesting to anyone not familiar with it, but to the rest of us, it was anticlimactic.

Overall though, this was a very enjoyable read that I would recommend.. After all, if you already know about the Battle of New Orleans you can just skip the end and read Remini's book on the subject...

Francis Parkman : France and England in North America : Vol. 1: Pioneers of France in the New World, The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century, La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West, The Old Regime in Canada (Library of America)

Average customer rating:

A Homeric work
The Homeric Tale of North America's Founding
Dated history, still highly readable.
Massive work on France in North America
A Titanic Achievement

Francis Parkman : France and England in North America : Vol. 1: Pioneers of France in the New World, The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century, La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West, The Old Regime in Canada (Library of America)
Francis Parkman
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0940450100

Book Description

This is the first of two volumes presenting all seven parts of Francis Parkman's monumental narrative history of the struggle for control of the American continent. Thirty years in the writing, Parkman's "history of the American forest" is an accomplishment hardly less awesome than the adventures he describes. This volume begins with the tragic settlement of French Huguenots in Florida, then shifts north as explorers like Samuel de Champlain map the wilderness and wage savage forest warfare against the Iroquois; resolute Jesuits attempt to convert the Indians and suffer captivity, torture, and martyrdom in the wilderness; conflict rages in French Canada between religious extremists and fur traders. Dominating all is the fiercely indomitable La Salle, whose obsession with colonizing the Mississippi Valley leads to vast treks across the western prairie and assassination in a lonely Texas swamp.

Customer Reviews:

A Homeric work.......2005-10-02

Parkman's (multi-volume) account the of the struggle of France and England for North American dominance remains the classic history. It is commodious in scope, majestic in vision, and equal with Thucydides in tragic magnitude. Parkman describes what North America once was (with invaluable discriptions of natives), and what still lies below the surface of what we've become.

There are other valuable sources. Morison [The Northern Voyages 500-1600 (1971), The Southern Voyages 1492-1616 (1974), Samuel de Champlain (1972)]. Anderson (Crucible of War) and Eccles (The French in North America). None are as eloquent as Parkman, though Morison's Voyages are equally worthy.

The Homeric Tale of North America's Founding.......2004-09-10

Francis Parkman is one of those titans of history writing, with a stature equal to that of Gibbon, Carlyle, Prescott, Herodotus, Thucydides and Churchill. His tales of the first colonial wars thus assume a mythological status, and the main protagonists of this, the second part of the Library of America volume - Frontenac, Montcalm and Wolfe - are all larger than life.

The story of Count Frontenac is set against the era of Louis XIV and his drawn-out continental wars against William of Orange and the English. Frontenac proves an adroit military commander, dealing sharply with the Iroquois, and even more decisively with the English colonists of North America. One cannot help but have goosebumps reading Parkman's matchless prose as Count Frontenac departs Canada after his first spell as governor: "When [Frontenac] sailed for France, it was a day of rejoicing to more than half the merchants of Canada . . . but he left behind him an impression, very general among the people, that, if danger threatened the colony, Count Frontenac was the man for the hour."

The story of Wolfe and Montcalm, and the final collapse of New France in 1759, has assumed the same proportions as Hector and Achilles. This is largely, if not solely, due to Parkman's magisterial account of the fall of Quebec; indeed, so stark is his influence today that a modern biographer of Bouganville (Montcalm's deputy) simply - and, I think, very appropriately - related the Plains of Abraham saga by block-quoting Parkman.

Whether read as history or historiography, Parkman remains a giant.

Dated history, still highly readable........2004-06-20

Yes, Francis Parkman's use of 19th century venacular and grammar can be a little offputting to a 21st century reader. Also, his prudish Victorian attitudes about what is appropriate to be written can come across as silly. However, Parkman wrote history with the skill of a novelist. His narrative histories are among the best written works in all of American literature.

As others have noted, these books are not "politically correct" in their description of the American Indian. Francis Parkman did write with an agenda. In the late 19th century, Parkman was offended by what he saw as the popular romanticism of the American Indian. (A trend that has continued to this day with the American Indian routinely being presented as a "New Age Eagle scout with a bent for ecology" in both our popular culture and even in our schools.) Thus, Parkman attempted to write what he saw as the "historical" or "correct" portrayal of the American Indian- one that could be ruthless, barbaric, and extremely cruel and he backed up his opinion with numerous historical examples.

Parkman saw himself as a neutral narrator- a "I'm just writing down the facts" type of historian. And he does describe examples of European barbarism and their genocidal strategies against the natives to go along side of his "Injun massacre" portrayal of the American Indian. Yet Parkman wrote with obvious biases and his description of the American Indian tribes is too simplistic. Partly, this is because of Parkman's own racial prejudices, but also it is because of his limitations as a historian. Parkman's history is just a straight narrative with almost no analysis.

For instance, Parkman describes the Iroquois Confederacy's destruction of the Hurons in the late 1640's in terrific detail, but he doesn't really explain why the Iroquois were so determined to crush the Hurons. To Parkman, the answer was simple the Iroquois were primitive savages, who reveled in large scale murder and destruction, so there is no reason to analyze why they attacked and destroyed an ancient enemy. Yet modern research, using the same sources Parkman had access too, has shown that there were very logical reasons why the Hurons were targetted for destruction by the Iroquois- the Hurons because of their location near the entrance of the Ottawa River controlled the beaver trade from the upper Great Lakes and the Iroquois wanted that plum for themselves because in order to survive in the world of the Europeans tribes needed something to bargain with and beaver pelts were that something. Parkman because of his prejudices just could not see Indian tribes being that rational in their decisions to go to war.

Time has definitely exposed Parkman's limitations as a historian. Yet his two volume history of England and France in North America still remains extremely readable and entertaining- his description of entering an Algonquin wigwam is a perfect example of his talent as a master narrator.

[Also, it's pretty sad to see Robert Gould Shaw, a kinsman of Parkman's and to whom the first book of this history was dedicated too, being referred to as "the guy" who Matthew Broderick played in the movie "Glory."]

Massive work on France in North America.......2004-04-27

Francis Parkman was apparently a real workhorse, and something of a fixture in Boston society also. The first book of this series is dedicated to (among others) the guy played by Matthew Broderick in the movie Glory of some years ago. The four books reprinted here represent a century or so of the history of New France. The work as a whole is somewhat deceptively titled "France and England in North America" when the focus of the work is pretty much exclusively on New France.

There are really four separate books here. "Pioneers of France in the New World" is divided into two portions. One tells the story of the short-lived French settlement in Florida, the other part recounts the work of Samuel de Champlain in what became known as Canada, and recounts the fateful decision of Champlain to take the side of the local Huron Indians against their perrenial enemies, the Iroqouis. "The Jesuits in North America in the Seventeenth Century" recounts the activities of that sect in their missions which tried without much success to convert the various tribes to Catholicism. "LaSalle and the Discovery of the Great West" tells the story of that individual, and his exploration of the Mississippi valley, the Great Lakes, and Texas, where he was killed, and also includes an account of the travels of Marquette and Joliet, discoverers of the Mississippi river. "The Old Regime in Canada" is more of a description of the colony than an account of events in it, though in the early pages of the work, there is an account of various incidents in the era just after the previous volume. Most of the book contains a description of society, culture, government, church, and economy in the late 17th century, though, and that's the focus of the work.

This is a justly famous work, though Parkman doesn't age as well as you might imagine. He uses strange usages of various words, with somewhat interesting grammar at times, also. The view of the Indians is particularly awkward, and very politically incorrect. He repeatedly refers to them as "savages" for instance, and has little use for their religious beliefs or culture. His view of Catholicism is also characteristically negative, which isn't a surprise in that he wrote in 19th century New England.

Given the clumsy language and the interesting viewpoints, I believe this book is anyway very valuable, and I enjoyed it. There is the issue of it being 1500+ pages, so I wouldn't recommend this book to the faint of heart. Given that this is only the first of two volumes, and that the second one is 100 pages longer, this is a considerable investment of time, even for the prodigious reader.

A Titanic Achievement.......2002-02-21

This multi-volume edition of Parkman's magnum opus might appear initially daunting, as it covers more than 1,200 pages of material. Suffice it say, however, that the rewards are entirely worth the effort of fording your way through this majestic work.

Parkman triumphed over numerous personal disabilities (extremely poor eyesight and recurring pain in his limbs), to produce some of the most important and transcendent histories of the 19th century, works that secured him a place in the American Pantheon, beside Prescott and Bancroft. He has been interpreted both as an example of literary Romanticism by some, and as a supreme pessimist by others. His objective as an historian was to "while scrupulously and rigorously adhering to the truth of facts, to animate them with the life of the past, and, so far as might be, clothe the skeleton with flesh." This notion is reflected repeatedly throughout these volumes. His style is highly descriptive, borrowing as it does from his numerous treks to the sites he writes of. The Jesuits, trappers, governors, nuns and explorers he depicts come across as flesh-and blood, breathing, human beings, engaged in real activities. He has little place for abstraction, and never dwells overlong on minutiae. The ramifications of particular pacts or treaties, for instance, are subordinate to actual events and places. When he takes the reader into an Indian log-house, he/she can practically taste the smoke as it permeates the air.

When it comes to Native Americans, Parkman is far from sentimental. In fact, he bridled at the notion, common in 19th Century Romanticism (particularly Rousseau and even more conspicuously in Chateaubriand's ), of the Indian as noble savage. Parkman's earlier book on the Oregon Trail stemmed in part from his experiences amongst the Sioux on the Western Plains. The Indians depicted in these pages are, for the most part, more savage than noble. The Iroquois are especially ferocious in their raiding parties and in their methods of reprisal. Those who fell victim to their wrath were in for days and nights of unspeakable torture. Parkman describes these scenes almost too vividly. But as he himself would note,
"Faithfulness to the truth of history involves far more than research, however patient and scrupulous, into special facts. The narrator must seek to imbue himself with the life and spirit of the time." There are some academics that would argue that Parkman is not as objective as he would like us to think. He has a fairly consistent Protestant, Bostonian, Brahmin bias as regarding Catholicism, for instance. His view of Native Americans is hardly what could be termed politically correct. However one may feel about his viewpoint, one can not dismiss his power of depiction, or the scope of his genius and enterprise. When taking into account the fact that he produced volume upon volume of history, under the most debilitating circumstances, there can be no denying that he qualifies, as perhaps no one else, as "The American Gibbon." For the reader who wants to relive history at its most vivid, Parkman provides the goods. He paints in realistic detail the struggles, adventures and misadventures, the faith and foibles, great tribulations and monumental victories of an exceedingly noteworthy cast of characters. There are the infinitely stoical, but often-scheming Jesuits. There is the monomaniacal, driven, but honest-dealing and ultimately tragic figure of LaSalle. Champlain is another noteworthy figure, truly heroic in stature. The most heroic figure, however, may after all be Parkman himself. Shaped as he was by the notions of greatness fostered by such writers as Carlyle, it was a state he strove consciously to achieve. This collection, along with others in the Modern Library series, indicates that he achieved his goal. Thanks to The Modern Library for making authors such as Parkman accessible once more.

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Flood
Mary Calhoun
Manufacturer: HarperCollins Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0688139191

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get "Rising Tide" instead

Interesting But Uneven

A River and Its City: The Nature of Landscape in New Orleans
Ari Kelman
Manufacturer: University of California Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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An Unnatural Metropolis: Wresting New Orleans from Nature

Transforming New Orleans & Its Environs: Centuries Of Change (Pittsburgh Hist Urban Environ)

Time and Place in New Orleans: Past Geographies in the Present Day

The Bulldozer In The Countryside: Suburban Sprawl and the Rise of American Environmentalism (Studies in Environment and History)

Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America

ASIN: 0520234332

Book Description

This engaging environmental history explores the rise, fall, and rebirth of one of the nation's most important urban public landscapes, and more significantly, the role public spaces play in shaping people's relationships with the natural world. Ari Kelman focuses on the battles fought over New Orleans's waterfront, examining the link between a river and its city and tracking the conflict between public and private control of the river. He describes the impact of floods, disease, and changing technologies on New Orleans's interactions with the Mississippi. Considering how the city grew distant--culturally and spatially--from the river, this book argues that urban areas provide a rich source for understanding people's connections with nature, and in turn, nature's impact on human history.

Customer Reviews:

get "Rising Tide" instead.......2007-02-14

There's nothing wrong with this book. It's a good book. But it pales beside a great book, John Barry's "Rising Tide," that covers much of the same material in greater depth, is infinitely better written, and which this book seems to have borrowed from. Kelman does give more of the early history than does Barry, as well as more about such things things as yellow fever. From an acadmeic perspective re: the geography of New Orleans, Richard Campanella's work is better also.

Interesting But Uneven.......2003-08-05

This is a book by an academic for academics. That being said, this topic ached to be addressed. Kelman has done his homework concerning the first two centuries of New Orleans' relationship with the Mississippi. The third (1918-present) seems to stop with the defeat of the notorious riverfront expressway. The river is likely (according to some scientists) to shift away from New Orleans, leaving the riverfront a muddy trickle. Kelman is silent on this. The degree of pollution and the efforts to clean up the lower part of the river go unsung as well. The last parts of the book have a rushed feeling, as if the expansive early history sapped the author's resources and there was little left worth saying. Lively it's not, but the book is important and a good reference work for further research.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Reader's Digest World's Best Reading)

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An Adventure
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Bantam Classics)
The Adventures of Huckelberry Finn
Legendary
An adventurous novel, my favorite book!

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Reader's Digest World's Best Reading)
Mark Twain
Manufacturer: Reader's Digest Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0895772523

Amazon.com

A seminal work of American Literature that still commands deep praise and still elicits controversy, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is essential to the understanding of the American soul. The recent discovery of the first half of Twain's manuscript, long thought lost, made front-page news. And this unprecedented edition, which contains for the first time omitted episodes and other variations present in the first half of the handwritten manuscript, as well as facsimile reproductions of thirty manuscript pages, is indispensable to a full understanding of the novel. The changes, deletions, and additions made in the first half of the manuscript indicate that Mark Twain frequently checked his impulse to write an even darker, more confrontational book than the one he finally published.

Book Description

'Cordially hated and dreaded by all the mothers of the town because he was idle, and lawless, vulgar, and bad - and because all their children admired him so', Huckleberry Finn, the fourteen-year-old son of the town drunkard, joins runaway slave Jim on an exciting journey down the mighty Mississippi River on a raft.

Customer Reviews:

An Adventure.......2007-08-30

It has been said that all American literature begins with The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Reading this book for the first time was a delight. Though I was thoroughly familiar with most of the story, I still found the book to be a page turner. The character of Huck, the manchild, has to be one of the most fascinating in all of literature.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Bantam Classics).......2007-08-05

I read this book years ago when I was very young, but it still stands today as my alltime favorite. As I turned the pages, I lived that exciting adventure along with Huck and Jim. The language is a bit difficult at first, but you get the hang of it rather quickly. It is recommended reading for all ages.

The Adventures of Huckelberry Finn.......2007-07-19

Again, I am never disappointed in purchasing books from you because they are always superior to buying local. Thanks for your service you provide to your customers.

Legendary.......2007-06-25

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: classic. I really enjoyed this book. Mark Twain managed to keep the boyish atmosphere of the Adventures of Tom Sawyer while adding in adult like concepts, such as decisive moral choice and honor, to create a work of fiction that many hail to be the "Great American Novel."

If you're not familiar with the story: Huck, after having found riches with Tom Sawyer, is living with the Widow Douglas and no longer leading a life of vagrancy. I won't go too deeply into the story because: a) there are a lot of plot elements and it would be impossible and b) it really is something that you have to experience through the eyes and in the language of Huck Finn (the entire story is written from his perspective and in his dialect as opposed to the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, which was written in Twain's distinct voice). Notable plot elements: Huck's escape from Pap, Jim and Huck's travel down the Mississippi, the Duke and the Dauphin and the Royal Nonesuch, and Huck and Tom's (who is present at the end of the book) contrivance to "free" Jim (you'll understand the "quotations" after you read the book).

Overall, all the hype surrounding this book is well deserved. Anyone who can read the English language should read this book (it should be a requirement punishable by death). You won't be disappointed.

An adventurous novel, my favorite book!.......2007-06-12

Witness Huck's transformation into maturity, through reading this captivating book that preaches independence and loyalty. Huck's dedication to his friend, Jim, is truly touching and serves as an inspiration to all!
Since the beginning of Huck's journey, Huck is living on his own without real adult supervision for the first time. He escapes from the custody of his abusive and manipulative father, and runs into Jim, who becomes a father figure to Huck later on in the story. Along with this "independence" Huck is forced to make his own decisions, which Huck first derives from the racist thoughts he had learned growing up, which he was having problems applying to his new African American, and escaped slave, friend. As Huck sees the cruelties of the world, where the white race call African Americans "[...]" and when the life of a slave is not valued, he eventually decides that what he was taught as a young child, no longer applied to the circumstances that he now lived in. As a reader, we can read and marvel at the brave adventures that Huck takes on and acknowledge him for his independent thinking!
Huck's refusal to give up their friendship and trust, and the knowledge and wisdom that Huck gained should be envied by everyone. Therefore, Huck is an inspiration for courageously breaking away from the negative views of society by upholding honor and establishing his individuality. Don't miss out on a book that can change your own outlook on life, learn the positive impact your decisions can make on the world!

Traditions of de-Coo-Dah: Antiquarian Researches

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Traditions of de-Coo-Dah: Antiquarian Researches
William Pidgeon
Manufacturer: Hayriver Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Controversial Knowledge | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0970398581

Product Description

Originally published in 1858, Traditions of DE-COO-DAH is William Pidgeon's chronicle of befriending an Indian named De-coo-dah, last of the Elk Clan from Northern Iowa and Southwestern Wisconsin. After a mutual trust is accomplished, De-coo-dah takes Pidgeon on a walking tour of his ancestors city sites and ceremonial earthworks. Pidgeon surveys, records data and illustrates most of the locations. Today, one can use De-coo-dahs directions on the Wisconsin River and the Mississippi River and actually locate earthworks still standing after all these ages past. This historical document is a fantastic read and a window into old Wisconsin and its river systems.

Life on the Mississippi (The World's Best Reading)

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Twain's "before and after" account of his quarter-century on the Old Muddy
Inspiring Narrative of Life on the River
Mark Twain at his best!
One of Twainýs Greatest!
Twain's Mississippi River Recollections..........

Life on the Mississippi (The World's Best Reading)
Mark Twain
Manufacturer: Reader's Digest Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Authors | Arts & Literature | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0895772752

Book Description

Twain reflects on the people and places of his childhood, the way things looked and felt in the memorable locales of his growing up and his later return to them in maturity.

Customer Reviews:

Twain's "before and after" account of his quarter-century on the Old Muddy.......2006-05-27

Twain's account of his years on the Mississippi is part travel book, part memoir, and part historical work, with a few sketches, stories, and tall tales tossed in for good measure. There is even an outtake from the not-yet-published "Huckleberry Finn," along with extensive excerpts from historical and contemporary accounts by other authors. This smorgasbord of material makes for an uneven book, but much of it shows Mark Twain at his humorous and humanistic best.

The kernel of the volume (and its best, most cohesive section) is in chapters 4 through 17; this material appeared in the Atlantic magazine in 1875 and recalls his early life as a crew member on steamboats in the early 1850s. His adventures as a young man are fraught with danger, full of comedy, populated by a number of ornery, mischievous, and reckless characters, and occasionally embellished (although Twain is a bit obvious when he's fobbing off a yarn). As Twain later wrote in "Puddn'head Wilson, "if there was anything better in this world than steamboating, it was the glory to be got by telling about it."

After he published the series in the Atlantic, Twain added another 46 chapters; much of it an account of his homecoming (incognito--or so he'd hoped) to the Mississippi River in 1882, when the steamboat had been rendered obsolete by the railroad. Many of these descriptions are unusually (for Twain) melancholy; he remarks upon the relatively emptiness of the river traffic and notes the transformations to the river and its banks that had made steamboat travel safer but less adventurous. His new journey provides opportunities to relate a number of stories--some allegedly told to him on the river and a few unpublished tales that he deemed relevant and worthy of inclusion.

The material from other sources, unfortunately, tends to bog things down--and there are about 10,000 words of it commingled in the text and included as appendices. Twain gathered newspaper articles and historical documents; he also included travel writing from earlier visitors, primarily Europeans distracted by how Americans and their homes were horribly uncouth and dirty. (You almost get the feeling that Twain would have smacked "the once renowned and vigorously hated" Frances Trollope upside the head if he'd had the chance; she provides Twain with the most interesting, if snooty, descriptions of traveling along the Mississippi early in the century.)

The material Twain wrote, however, more than compensates for the dryness of the extraneous stuff. As always, he is quotable, witty, amusing, and provocative. In spite of its excesses, nobody has done the Mississippi better.

Inspiring Narrative of Life on the River.......2005-12-24

Mark Twain (1835-1910) grew up along the banks of the Mississippi River, and he captures the feel of the mighty river during the steamboat era in this superb narrative and memoir. I particularly liked the earlier chapters, as Twain describes his youthful tutelage as an aspiring steamboat pilot in the years before the Civil War. Readers see what it was like guiding a steamboat over a river full of dangerous snags and sandbars - in clear daylight, through thick fog, and on moonless nights. The author then jumps ahead to his middle age - describing life along the river and in the South after the Civil War, and including politics, epidemics, and the supplanting of steamboats by railroads. The book's second half lacks a bit of the magic found earlier, but remains eminently readable and informative. This is a remarkable narrative by a great writer.

Mark Twain at his best!.......2005-04-05

I've been reading a lot of classic literature recently, and I also recently saw the Mississippi River for the first time...so this book seemed liked the perfect one for me to read right now.
This is a "non-fictional" book by Mark Twain. (I guess that means based on some truth but embelished in various ways?) In it he recalls the years he spent during his youth as a steamboat pilot on the Mississippi River. Then he suddenly jumps forward many years in the book to when he is an older man. As an older man, he decides to go back and travel on the Mississippi River again. He finds the river much changed. The course of time (the Civil War has come and gone, the expansion of the railroad, and the forces of nature) have greatly changed life on the river. The once thriving steamboat trade has almost disapeared.
Besides his personal recollections, he also includes other interesting stories,history,folklore, talltales, and such. It is written in typical Mark Twain style - his dry sense of humor will bring a smile to your face. I really enjoyed this book.

One of Twainýs Greatest!.......2003-04-15

This book--at times disjointed, rambling, self-referential, and irreverent--is decades ahead of its time. It's an interdisciplinarian's dream as Twain takes on economics, geography, politics, ancient and contemporary history, and folklore with equal ease. Mostly though, one appreciates his knack for exaggeration, the tall tale, and the outright lie. It's a triumph of tone, as he lets you in on his wild wit, his keen observation, and his penchant for bending the truth without losing his credibility as a guide.

The book's structure is also modern: He recounts his days as a paddlewheel steam boat "cub," piloting the hundreds of miles of the Mississippi before the Civil War, then, in Part 2, returns to retrace his paddleboat route. Although a few of his many digressions don't work (they sometimes sound formulaic or too detailed) most of the narrative is extremely entertaining. Twain seems caught between admiration and disdain for the "modern" age-but he also rejects over-sentimentality over the past. He writes with beauty and cynicism, verve and humor. Very highly recommended!

Twain's Mississippi River Recollections.................2003-04-03

In Life on the Mississippi, Twain recounts his river experiences from boyhood to riverboat captain and beyond. Encompassing the years surrounding the Civil War, this book is an excellent source of 19th-century Americana as well as an anthology of the mighty river itself. Replete with rascally rivermen, riparian hazards, deluge, catastrophe, and charm, Life on the Mississippi is another of Twain's stellar literary achievements.

Wit and wisdom are expected from Twain and this book does not disappoint. It is equally valuable for it's period descriptions of the larger river cities (New Orleans, St. Louis, St. Paul), as well as the small town people and places ranging the length of America's imposing central watershed.

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