Big Muddy

by B. Clarence Hall

Just over a hundred years ago Mark Twain created an American classic with Life on the Mississippi, a vivid chronicle of the majestic river that winds through America's heartland. Now Big Muddy follows in its wake to bring us an evocative, entertaining, and enormously informative account of our country's premier waterway at the close of the twentieth century. From Minnesota to Louisiana, the Mississippi sweeps through America's center, capturing all of its astonishing variety. From the Midwestern pragmatism of Minnesota's mythical Lake Wobegon region to the jazz- and blues-rich but cash-poor city of East St. Louis ... from the old men in sweat-stained Dobb's hats trading flood stories at country crossroad stores to the legendary Highway 61 immortalized by Bob Dylan ... from the Delta tenant farmers scratching out a living on pesticide-ridden soil to the rich Cajun ancestry of Louisiana's hidden bayous, the river keeps rolling along in glorious celebration and somber reflection of the pe