an invaluable companion to the adventures of huckleberry finn and the adeventures of tom sawyer, life on the mississipi is mark twain inimitable potrait of the great father of waters, part memoir part travelogue, it expresses the full range of twains literary personality and remains the most vivid, boisterous and provocative account of the cultural and societal history of the mississippi valley from the golden age of steam boating to the violence wrought by the civil war.