Roughing It

Twain’s rollicking memoir recounts his years knocking about the American West—crossing the plains by stagecoach, prospecting for silver in Nevada, trying his hand at journalism, and sailing to Hawaii—amid a cast of miners, gamblers, desperadoes, and dreamers. Part travelogue, part tall tale, it captures the raw energy, absurdity, and mythology of the frontier boom years with Twain’s incomparable humor and eye for the ridiculous. Full of memorable episodes and comic exaggeration, Roughing It is a joyous portrait of a young man and a young country both still finding themselves. It remains one of the funniest and most vivid accounts of the Old West.