Before Twain took up writing as a career he had a strong ambition to become a steamboat pilot. In 1883 Twain published a memoir called Life on the Mississippi, in which he details his days on a steamboat moving up and down the grand old river. Below you can listen to excerpts from the memoir, performed by Ed Begley Sr.

“When I was a boy…” relates Twain’s initial love for steamboats and describes the excitement that the approach of a boat on the river brought to his entire town.

“I packed my valise…” reports Twain’s first time piloting a steamboat, which he is allowed to do after he pays the actual steamboat’s pilot for lessons. It’s a bit more difficult than Twain thought!

“At last somebody said…” sheds light on where Twain got his pen name from, while one of Twain’s trips down the river becomes frighteningly perilous.