Episode 64: Imagining the Mississippi River – Thomas Ruys Smith (Water & Waterways, Part 4)

This episode features Thomas Ruys Smith, Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of East Anglia, discussing the cultural life of the Mississippi River and one of its most notable residents, Mark Twain.

Episode Image: A statue of Mark Twain overlooking the Mississippi River, Hannibal, Missouri, 1951 [Missouri Ruralist Photographs (P0030), SHSMO]

About the Guest: Thomas Ruys Smith is Professor of American Literature and Culture at the University of East Anglia. He is the author of several books, including “River of Dreams: Imagining the Mississippi Before Mark Twain,” “Southern Queen: New Orleans in the Nineteenth Century,” and “Deep Water: The Mississippi River in the Age of Mark Twain.” He is also the editor of several anthologies, including “Blacklegs, Card Sharps and Confidence Men: Nineteenth-Century Mississippi River Gambling Stories” and “Christmas Past: An Anthology of Seasonal Stories from Nineteenth-Century America.”