"The raft in Huck Finn , as every reader knows, is a symbol of home and freedom. But was it a log raft (as generally depicted), or a lumber raft? Who owned it? Did it comprise a mere fragment of a larger craft, or a symmetrical "crib"? Peter Beidler has long been the Noah of the raft episode and its rightful place in Mark Twain's masterpiece. In this little book, structured largely as a series of answers to rhetorical questions about the nomenclature and physical makeup of rivercraft in Mark Twain's works and elsewhere, Beidler exerts complete salvage rights over the raft itself. Much as the cetology chapters deepen our understanding of Mody-Dick , Beidler's detailed annotations give us a solid grub stake --not the monetary share of conventional dictionary definitions but, in the river lexicon of the nineteenth century, a sturdy handle or connecting rod--for grasping the material culture of Huck Finn and, thus, enlarging our understanding of the book as a whole."-- Thomas Cooley , The Ohio State University; editor, The Norton Critical Edition of Huckleberry Finn.