FROM THE AUTHOR'S PROLOGUE This is the story of an obsession, an obsession by two men that steam could propel a vessel upstream against a strong current. One is a historical figure, John Fitch. More than a decade before Robert Fulton, Fitch placed a steamboat in regular service on the Delaware River. The second, Timothy Chase, is a young man who fell unannounced into my imagination and took up permanent residence there. I soon learned that he had a passion for steam engines, a beguiling innocence, and a talent for getting into trouble. Once I had set the two figures in motion it seemed inevitable that they should be drawn to that steamboat Mecca, the Mississippi River, and to meet there the legendary boatman of heroic deeds and epic boasts, Mike Fink. This, then, is a wedding of American history and fiction, of fact and fable. I like to think it's a narrative that Mark Twain, our premier Mississippi River fabulist, would approve of, for it combines the fresh taste of huckleberries on the tongue with the sounds of slapping paddlewheels and the touch of young love.