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Old Times on the Upper Mississippi Recollections of a Steamboat Pilot from 1854 to 1863 George Byron Merrick |
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A long-awaited new edition of the steamboating classic. George Byron Merrick chronicles the entire panorama of steamboat life he experienced in the mid-1800s, where he started as a cabin boy and worked up to cub pilot on the mighty Mississippi. Originally published in 1909, Merrick's narrative matches lively stories about gamblers, shipwrecks, and steamboat races with rich descriptions of river life and steamboat operations. "Merrick, in a variety of capacities, sailed up and down the river from 1854 to 1863. It is impossible to read of such devil-may-care steamboating without a regret that there is none of it to be had these days." —New York Times Book Review "We know of no better account, from the inside, of steamboating." —American Historical Review "Merrick had a mind insatiable of detail and an almost singular appreciation of the dramatics of commerce. He was not only a notable historian himself but the cause of much history writing by others. To him I am indebted." —Charles Edward Russell George Byron Merrick (1841-1931) grew up in Prescott, Wisconsin, at the junction of the Mississippi and St. Croix rivers. After nine years of steamboating, he volunteered for the Wisconsin Infantry during the Civil War before settling into life as a newspaper editor and publisher. 328 pages | 23 halftones, 2 drawings | 5 7/8 x 8 3/4 | 2001 |
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$16.95 Paper [an error occurred while processing this directive]