Wicked River: The Mississippi When It Last Ran Wild

“A gripping book that plunges you into a rich dark stretch of visceral history. I read it in two sittings and got up shaken.” —Garrison Keillor

“Gripping stuff…Appreciators of what Greil Marcus calls the Old, Weird America will savor Wicked River. Its many ghastly scenes, vividly rendered by Mr. Sandlin, started showing up in my dreams…I was surprised, upon finishing Wicked River, to read that this confident and swift-moving book is the author's first. It makes one eager for the next.” —Wall Street Journal

“In this lush, exuberant, action-packed and history-drenched book, Sandlin has brought the river back home again…A vivid torrent of facts and passions, in an inspired agitation of water and words…Wicked River is the best kind of history book. It is organized around people and their fates, not wars and dates and treaty signings. It artfully separates reality from fables, but it recognizes that fables have a story to tell, too, that our tall tales and our songs and our exaggerations and our mythologies can be as revelatory as topographical maps and temperature charts.” —Chicago Tribune

“Marvelously captured…A superb book debut…Sandlin writes of a recurring sense of looming catastrophe that gripped many residents…Fascinating.” —Chicago Sun-Times

“Entertaining…Chicago essayist and journalist Lee Sandlin tells tales about the Mississippi in the days when the river and the people who floated on it or lived along it were wild and untamed in the extreme…Sandlin has done an impressive amount of research. For all that, his prose manages to avoid the snags and shoals of academic English… A lot of fun to read." —St. Louis Post-Dispatch