Books, Books, Books, AHHHH!!!

So, when I first heard that I would have to choose a book to do extensive research on, I thought no big deal. Books are my thing, so this should be a piece of cake. Boy was I wrong. After countless hours sitting in front of my computer screen searching and searching through endless amounts of websites, I began to feel a little discouraged. There were so many to choose from and that made my decision very difficult to make. Just when I thought I would have it narrowed down to one, I’d find another that intrigued me just as much. Luckily, just as I was about to take a break due to aggravation, I finally found my “baby.” I have chosen Mark Twain’s Life on the Mississippi to do my research on.

http://www.thelitwitch.com/?p=4210

This book was published in the both the United States and Great Britain in 1883. Twain based this book upon his years piloting on the Mississippi. It is written in two parts: stories from his first years of being a river boat captain and the second part contains observations he made when making a return trip down the Mississippi some years later. One fun note about this book is that in the US first edition there is an illustration of Mark Twain’s head on fire in an urn but it was removed at the request of his wife due to her dislike of the picture; therefore, no other first editions contained the illustration after this.

This book contains over 300 illustrations that I found very interesting to look at.

I found the cover of this book to be very eye catching and I cannot wait to learn everything I can about what went into making this book beautiful.