[Next Project] Life on the Mississippi

[Chris Spurgeon]

Once my current project clears review I'd like to switch gears from doing Bulldog Drummond mysteries and take on one of my favorite books, by one of my favorite authors, Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain.

Project Gutenberg has a transcript of the 1883 edition at https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/245 , and the Internet Archive has page scans of that same edition at https://archive.org/details/LifeOnTheMississippi1883MarkTwain/ 

Chris

[Alex Cabal]

OK! We will cut all of the illustrations. Please send a link to your
repo once you start!

On 9/1/26 7:38 PM, Chris Spurgeon wrote:
> Once my current project clears review I'd like to switch gears from
> doing Bulldog Drummond mysteries and take on one of my favorite books,

> by one of my favorite authors, /Life on the Mississippi/ by Mark Twain.

>
> Project Gutenberg has a transcript of the 1883 edition at https://
> www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/245 , and the Internet Archive has page scans
> of that same edition at https://archive.org/details/
> LifeOnTheMississippi1883MarkTwain/
>
> Chris
>

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[Chris Spurgeon]

Repo created, at https://github.com/chrisspurgeon/mark-twain_life-on-the-mississippi

[Alex Cabal]

OK, Vince will manage with Lukas reviewing.

On 9/3/26 12:00 AM, Chris Spurgeon wrote:
> Repo created, at https://github.com/chrisspurgeon/mark-twain_life-on-
> the-mississippi

>
> On Wednesday, September 2, 2026 at 12:32:37 PM UTC-7 Alex Cabal wrote:
>
> OK! We will cut all of the illustrations. Please send a link to your
> repo once you start!
>
>
>
> On 9/1/26 7:38 PM, Chris Spurgeon wrote:
> > Once my current project clears review I'd like to switch gears from
> > doing Bulldog Drummond mysteries and take on one of my favorite
> books,
> > by one of my favorite authors, /Life on the Mississippi/ by Mark
> Twain.
> >
> > Project Gutenberg has a transcript of the 1883 edition at https://

> > www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/245 <http://www.gutenberg.org/
> ebooks/245> , and the Internet Archive has page scans
> > of that same edition at https://archive.org/details/ <https://
> archive.org/details/>

> > LifeOnTheMississippi1883MarkTwain/
> >
> > Chris
> >
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[Chris Spurgeon]

Had to set this aside for a couple of weeks due to an assignment, but now that I'm back on it, I have a question about how to handle chapter subtitles. As you can see in these screenshots, in the original printed book each chapter in the Table of Contents has quite extensive subtext. But then when you get to each chapter itself, it only has a short single sentence subhead. My question... should I just forget about those subheads in the table of contents completely, or should I insert them (as editorial commits) in each chapter as chapter bridgeheads?

[Vince]

If they’re not in the text itself, we typically ignore them.

[Chris Spurgeon]

Ok

On Sep 19, 2026, at 8:40 PM, Vince <vr_se...@letterboxes.org> wrote:

If they’re not in the text itself, we typically ignore them.

On Sep 19, 2026, at 6:55 PM, Chris Spurgeon <spurge...@gmail.com> wrote:

Had to set this aside for a couple of weeks due to an assignment, but now that I'm back on it, I have a question about how to handle chapter subtitles. As you can see in these screenshots, in the original printed book each chapter in the Table of Contents has quite extensive subtext. But then when you get to each chapter itself, it only has a short single sentence subhead. My question... should I just forget about those subheads in the table of contents completely, or should I insert them (as editorial commits) in each chapter as chapter bridgeheads?

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[Chris Spurgeon]

In this passage...

...a few trips later he took out a full license, and went to piloting day and night⁠—and he ranked A 1, too.

How should I mark the 'A 1'? Maybe as an acronym, like this?

...and he ranked <abbr epub:type="z3998:acronym">A 1</abbr>, too.

[Vince Rice]

No, it’s not an acronym, or any other kind of abbreviation, see SEMoS 8.10.10.1. Remove the space in the middle, editorial.

[Chris Spurgeon]

Wow, the SEMoS thinks of everything! Thanks!

On Sep 26, 2026, at 9:21 AM, Vince Rice <vr_se...@letterboxes.org> wrote:



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[Chris Spurgeon]

At the end of chapter 16 there are a couple of pages of record times for different steamboat passages on the Mississippi and adjoining rivers. If there's no objection, I was planning of just leaving all of that out. OK?

Here are screenshots of the original pages...

[Vince]

I would say it should stay, especially since the text talks about it. We occasionally leave out frontmatter that’s uninteresting, but I don’t recall us leaving out actual bodymatter. Alex, what say you?

> On Sep 27, 2026, at 5:35 PM, Chris Spurgeon <spurge...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> At the end of chapter 16 there are a couple of pages of record times for different steamboat passages on the Mississippi and adjoining rivers. If there's no objection, I was planning of just leaving all of that out. OK?
>
> Here are screenshots of the original pages...
>
>

> <Screenshot 2026-09-27 at 3.28.02 PM.png>
>

[Alex Cabal]

I think we should keep it

[Chris Spurgeon]

OK, very good. I'll include it.

[Chris Spurgeon]

Meanwhile, another quick question. There are numerous places in the text that refer to spots on the river that have numbers in their names. Things like this...

"passing mile 62"

"we tied up at the shore above 21"

In those cases, where the numerals are in effect names -- or part of names -- should I not follow the SEMoS guideline of converting the numerals to words, and instead keep them as is?

Thanks!

[Alex Cabal]

Vince, thoughts?

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[Vince]

Oops, sorry, this has been a busy week.

I think that’s correct. I wouldn’t consider those “in a number context.”

[Chris Spurgeon (gmail)]

OK, thanks!

Chris

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