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River of Dreams: Imagining the Mississippi before Mark Twain (Southern Literary Studies) by Thomas Ruys Smith is a nonfiction available to read on EtoBox.

What is River of Dreams: Imagining the Mississippi before Mark Twain (Southern Literary Studies) about?

Even in the decades before Mark Twain enthralled the world with his evocative representations of the Mississippi, the river played an essential role in American culture and consciousness. Throughout the antebellum era, the Mississippi acted as a powerful symbol of America's conception of itself -- and the world's conception of America. As Twain understood, "The Mississippi is well worth reading about." Thomas Ruys Smith's River of Dreams is an examination of the Mississippi's role in the antebellum imagination, exploring its cultural position in literature, art, thought, and national life. Presidents, politicians, authors, poets, painters, and international celebrities of every variety experienced the Mississippi in its Golden Age. They left an extraordinary collection of representations of the river in their wake, images that evolved as America itself changed. From Thomas Jefferson's vision for the Mississippi to Andrew Jackson and the rowdy river culture of the early nineteenth century, Smith charts the Mississippi's shifting importance in the making of the nation. He examines the accounts of European travelers, including Frances Trollope, Charles Dickens, and William Makepeace T

Who reads River of Dreams: Imagining the Mississippi before Mark Twain (Southern Literary Studies)?

Author

Thomas Ruys Smith

Publisher

Louisiana State University Press

Published

2007

Language

EN

ISBN

9780807143094

Category

nonfiction

Subjects

History, Literary Criticism, Literary Fiction

Rating

4.5 / 5 (4 ratings)

Updated

2026-03-14