"Mighty Mississippi is a stirring account of the conflict over the great river at the heart of the nation, a conflict between water and rail, full of the violence of an earlier America. The author gives us, out of his own background on the Mississippi, something of the magic and mystery of Mark Twain and an era long gone. It is a saga of America, and the reader who begins it will find it impossible to put it down." -- Senator Charles Percy, Illinois. -- Book jacket.