MY LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI OR WHY I AM NOT MARK TWAIN BY RICHARD BISSELL- USED GOOD, COL

• Title: My Life on the Mississippi, or Why I Am Not Mark Twain

• Author: Richard Bissell

• Publisher: Little, Brown and Company (Boston / Toronto)

• Publication Date: 1973

• Format: Hardcover with original dust jacket

• Original Retail Price: $7.95

Historical & Content Background

Richard Bissell (1913–1977) was a uniquely talented American author, Harvard graduate, and licensed Mississippi River steamboat pilot. He is best known for his 1953 novel 7½ Cents, which he later helped adapt into the massive Broadway hit and movie musical The Pajama Game.

Because Bissell wrote so masterfully about the humor, dialogue, and hard-working culture of the modern 20th-century riverboat crews, critics constantly compared him to Mark Twain. My Life on the Mississippi, or Why I Am Not Mark Twain was his delightfully self-deprecating response to those lifelong comparisons.

The book is a blend of autobiography, travelogue, and tall tales detailing his decades navigating the river. It also contains a bizarrely true family connection to Twain: Bissell’s own uncle actually bought Mark Twain's famous 20-room mansion in Hartford, Connecticut, in 1903 (and later used it as a storage warehouse). The cover art—showing a young boy relaxing on a river dock with his pipe smoke swirling up to form the face of Mark Twain—brilliantly captures the book's irreverent, nostalgic theme.

Edition Identification

Looking closely at the copyright page (the fifth photo), this copy explicitly states "First Edition" directly below the copyright lines, alongside the printing code "T 11/73" (indicating it was printed in November 1973). This confirms it is a genuine true first printing.